Lok Adalat settles 81 lakh cases in one day | India News

NEW DELHI: The third national lok adalat held across India, except in Delhi, settled 81 lakh cases on Saturday, including 18 lakh pending and 63 lakh pre-litigation cases, involving a settlement amount of over Rs 5,500 crore.
The trial courts, groaning under a monstrous pendency of 4.2 crore cases, were saved this year of a burden of 2.2 crore cases, which were settled through three national lok adalats held under the aegis of National Legal Services Authority headed by CJI-designate UU LalitNALSA said.
Lalit, who criss-crossed the country even during the pandemic to popularise free legal aid to the poor with a focus on settling disputes through lok adalats, had held extensive preparatory meetings with chairpersons and members of the state legal services authorities (SALSAs) to guide them on a broad framework to make the litigants understand the benefits of settlement through the inexpensive resolution process integral to functioning of lok adalats.
A unique feature of the third GREAT is the success of digital lok adalats. CJI-designate Lalit said, “Lok adalat has created history in the justice dispensation system as it succeeded in providing a supplementary fora to litigants for satisfactory and timely settlement of their disputes. There is no doubt about the fact that lok adalats have become the apertures for access to justice for the disadvantaged and underprivileged.”
He said these lok adalats have been able to bridge the gap between the litigants and dispute redressal institutions. “They not only provide an efficient substitute to seek redressal, but significantly help in reducing the burden of the courts pertaining to backlog and pendency of cases. They have made access to justice easy for everyone irrespective of their financial status,” he added.
The second NLA had settled more than 95 lakh cases involving a settlement amount of Rs 9,422 crore.
The three lok adalats conducted this year cumulatively settled over 2.2 crore cases, NALSA said. The NLA at Delhi couldn’t be held on Saturday because of a full dress rehearsal of armed and police forces for the Independence Day ceremony. NALSA has scheduled it on August 21.