Report on Academic Visit of District Court, Meerut
An academic visit was organized by Sardar Patel Subharti Institute of Law, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University for the students of BA.LL.B. to observe the working procedure of Lok Adalat under the direction of Justice Rajesh Chandra (Former Judge, Allahabad High Court, UP) director, Subharti Law College and in the guidance of Prof (Dr) Vaibhav Goel Bhartiya, Dean & Principal, Faculty of Law. At 10.10am Law students under the supervision of Dr. Sarika Tyagi, Convener Law Club &Ms. Shalini Goel, faculty members of Subharti Law College moved for the visit of the District Court Meerut to observe the working procedure of Lok Adalat.
On this occasion Sh. Rajesh Chandra, Director, Faculty of Law said that understanding the work procedure of Lok Adalat is very important for law students. It is one of the main tasks of Lok Adalat to resolve the disputes in a speedy manner, you are fortunate that Subharti Law College is organizing this visit to facilitate you. Definitely you all will be benefited with this visit because Lok Adalat is the way through which litigants can resolve their disputes/ cases in lesser time and the burden of Courts can be reduced by using all the alternative methods of disputes resolution. As it is much clearer with the name, the literal meaning of Lok Adalat is “People’s-Court ”. It is one of the essential components of the ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) system. In ancient times, the disputes were referred to as “Panchayats’ ‘, which were established at the village level. ‘Panchayats’ resolved the disputes through arbitration.
Prof (Dr) Vaibhav Goel Bhartiya, Dean & Principal, Faculty of Law while addressing the students, said that Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute redressal mechanisms, where disputes or cases pending in the court of law or at a pre-litigation stage are settled or compromised amicably. Lok Adalats have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. The award is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law.
Lok Adalats can deal with civil matters as well as criminal matters which are compoundable under any law. They have no jurisdiction in respect of matters relating to an offense not compoundable under any law. All proceedings before a Lok Adalat shall be deemed to be judicial proceedings within the meaning of the Indian Penal Code (1860) and every Lok Adalat shall be deemed to be a Civil Court for the purpose of the Code of Criminal Procedure (1973). An award of a Lok Adalat shall be deemed to be a decree of a Civil Court or an order of any other court.
Sh. Rajat Singh Jain, Hon’ble District & Session Judge asked the students about their role/ what is the role of an advocate was asked by him from the students? It is answered by the students jointly that an advocate is one who has basic knowledge of law and is well aware how to plead before the court in an effective manner.
Then, this group met with bank officials, specifically with Sh. R.P. Singh, Manager, State Bank of India. He told the students about the loan recovery cases. How much is deposited by the debtor? On this question, he said that to finalize the recovery cases generally banks waive off the interest on the loan amount, and sometimes in a few cases the principal amount is also lessened by the creditor bank.
Then, students along with the faculty members, reached the office of District Legal Service Authority, Meerut, where Sh. Vinod Sharma ji, Secretary, DLSA told the students about the internship introduced by the DLSA. It will start from 1 June 2023 in which you may also participate. He also told the students what they will achieve from this internship. He also told them that this profession is very pious and Nobel and it is your duty how to maintain its piousness? During this academic visit Manik Pahuja, Uvais Ghazi and Ajay Sangwan were present.
