On 12/03/2022 a 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. The main objective of this visit was to introduce the students to the working method of Lok- Adalats as it is one of the important methods which provide speedy justice to the needy person/litigants. At 10.30 a group of students along with 2 faculty members of Subharti Law College moved from the college to visit the working procedure of Lok Adalat. The team of students was guided by Justice Rajesh Chandra former judge, High Court of Judicature at, Prayagraj, UP, director, Subharti Law College, and in the direction of Prof. (Dr.)Vaibhav Goel Bhartiya, Dean, Faculty of Law, Swami Vivekanand Subharti University, Meerut.
In his address, Justice Chandra said that understanding the work procedure of Lok Adalat is very important for law students. It is the main task 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 from this. On this occasion Prof. (Dr.) Vaibhav Goel Bhartiya, Dean Faculty of Law told that 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 clear 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. It has proved to be a very effective alternative to litigation. The awards passed by a Lok Adalat are considered to be a decree of a Civil Court and shall be final and binding on all the parties of the dispute (there shall also be no appeal against the award).
We can say that Lok Adalat is having the powers the civil courts are having by the virtue of the Civil Procedure Code, 1908. Not only this proceeding under sec. 195 and Chapter VI of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1972 are also considered civil proceedings. The advent of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 gave statutory status to Lok Adalats, pursuant to the constitutional mandate in Article 39-A of the Constitution of India. It contains various provisions for the settlement of disputes through Lok Adalat.
First Lok Adalat was started in Gujarat in March 1982 and slowly spread across the country. The advent of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 gave statutory authority to Lok Adalats, pursuant to the constitutional mandate in Article 39-A of the Indian Constitution. The act mandates to provide free legal services to the weaker sections of the society and ensure that justice is not denied to any of the citizens. The parties are not allowed to be represented by the lawyers and encouraged to interact with a judge who helps in arriving at an amicable settlement. No fee is paid by the parties. A strict rule of Civil Procedural Court and evidence is not applied. The decision is by informal sitting and binding on the parties and no appeal lies against the order of the Lok Adalat.
During the visit, Dr. Sarika Tyagi & Dr. Ashutosh Garg talked about the role of Lok Adalat and its importance in the justice system. They also explained various methods of dispute resolution such as arbitration, conciliation, mediation, negotiation, and Lok Adalat and about the appellate procedure against the award passed by the arbitrator were raised by the students, and queries were resolved. After this students met with Sh. Irfan Qamar, Principal Judge, Family Court, Meerut and raised a few questions about maintenance, restitution of conjugal rights(Sec.9 HMA,1955), Judicial separation (Sec.11 HMA,1955) as well as on the legitimacy of a child.
During the visiting district government counsel Sh. Brij Bhushan Garg also explained various topics related to criminal cases with the students and also resolved various queries of the students. Not only Sh. brij Bhushan Garg Ji, but students also met with Sh. Sudheer Kumar Ji, Branch Manager of “Prathma Bank”, told a lot about the bank cases and how the recovery of loans is done by the officers. After that students met with Smt. Anju Kamboj, Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Meerut. She interacted with the students and also met with the Paralegal Volunteer of Subharti Law College and discussed regarding Survey of NALSA she also motivated and appreciated the PLV & other students to work for the society through Legal Aid. In this academic visit Adnan, Rishabh, Saurabh, Devraj Rana, Himanshu Panwar, Anil Kishore, Manisha Raj, Aditi, Anamika Sinha, Sumit, Imran, Garima Gaur, Gaurav Pal, Nidhi Jindal, Avnish, Vaibhav, Usman, Farukh. Tanzeel, Sumit Sharma, Mansi, Priya, Shivani Agarwal, Alka, Shikha, Uvais, Ajay Sangwan, Zareena, Gracy Manik were present.
