BACKGROUND 

• Justice delayed is justice denied. Also, access to justice for the poor is a constitutional mandate to ensure fair treatment under our legal system.
• Hence, Lok Adalats were established to make justice accessible and affordable to all.
• It was a forum to address the problems of crowded case dockets outside the formal adjudicatory system.

ORIGIN OF LOK ADALATS

• Lok Adalats had existed even before the concept received statutory recognition.
• In 1949, Harivallabh Parikh, a disciple of Mahatma Gandhi, popularised them in Rangpur, Gujarat.
• In the Constitution of India, 42nd Amendment Act, 1976, inserted Article 39A to ensure “equal justice and free legal aid”.
• Hence, to this end, the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, was enacted by Parliament and it came into force in 1995 “to provide free and competent legal services to weaker sections of the society” and to “organise Lok Adalats to secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice on a basis of equal opportunity”.

FUNCTIONING OF LOK ADALATS

• The Lok Adalat functions as an alternative dispute resolution tool.
• They are regularly organised to help parties reach a compromise.
• Motor-accident claims, disputes related to public-utility services, cases related to dishonour of cheques, and land, labour and matrimonial disputes (except divorce) are usually taken up by Lok Adalats.
• At state level, the State Legal Services Authorities (SLSAs) have been organising Lok Adalats on a daily, fortnightly and monthly basis.
• Data from the National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) show that Lok Adalats organised across the country from 2016 to 2020 disposed of 52,46,415 cases.
• Similarly, National Lok Adalats (NLAs) organised under the aegis of NALSA settle a huge number of cases across the country in a single day.

NEED FOR LOK ADALATS

• The Indian judicial system is often criticized, perhaps justifiably, for its endemic delays and excessive backlogs.
• As per the National Judicial Data Grid, 16.9% of all cases in district and taluka courts are three to five years old; for High Courts, 20.4% of all cases are five to 10 years old, and over 17% are 10-20 years old.
• Furthermore, over 66,000 cases are pending before the Supreme Court, over 57 lakh cases before various HCs, and over 3 crore cases are pending before various district and subordinate courts.
• Justice V.V.S. Rao, former judge of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, calculated a few years ago that it will take around 320 years to clear the existing backlog of cases.
• Hence, Lok Adalats  with its procedural flexibility helps in reducing burdening of courts.

SIGNIFICANCE OF LOK ADALATS

Party driven process- Lok Adalats involves mainly a party-driven process, allowing the parties involved to reach an amicable settlement.

Speedy settlement- When compared to litigation, and even other dispute resolution devices, such as arbitration and mediation, Lok Adalats offer parties speed of settlement, as cases are disposed of in a single day.

Procedural flexibility-  as there is no strict application of procedural laws such as the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872;

Economic affordability- as there are no court fees for placing matters before the Lok Adalat;

Finality of awards- as no further appeal is allowed. This prevents delays in settlement of disputes. Also, the award issued by a Lok Adalat, after the filing of a joint compromise petition, has the status of a civil court decree.

CONCERNS

• Discontinuance of the practice of dealing with specific types of dispute on a single day, has led to a significant drop in the number of cases settled. This raises questions about the efficiency of NLAs.
• The organisation of  e-Lok Adalat amidst ongoing pandemic have been less efficient than the physical National Lok Adalats organised in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
• there is a concern, that in the endeavour for speedy disposal of cases, it undermines the idea of justice.
• In a majority of cases, litigants are pitted against entities with deep pockets.
• In many cases, compromises are imposed on the poor who often have no choice but to accept them. Similarly, poor women under the so-called ‘harmony ideology’ of the state are virtually dictated by family courts to compromise matrimonial disputes under a romanticised view of marriage.
• Even a disaster like the Bhopal gas tragedy was coercively settled for a paltry sum, with real justice still eluding thousands of victims. 
• Also, this  arrangement has tailored a dual system of justice dispensation, where the formal legal system, i.e., the court, is meant only for the rich and powerful, as was recently stated by former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi?

WAY FORWARD

• The system should focus on the just outcome of a legal process, which is far more important than expeditious disposal.
• Besides efficiency and speed, Lok Adalats should assure the quality of justice delivered.
• Hence in this direction, Judiciary must take concrete and innovative steps in improving the quality of justice rendered by National Lok Adalats.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/for-lok-adalats-speed-overrides-quality/article34267191.ece