The Fact News Service
Patiala, November 12
As per the directions of NALSA & under the able guidance of Hon’ble Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa, Judge Punjab & Haryana High Court-cum- Executive Chairman, Punjab State Legal Services Authority and under the supervision of Sh. Tarsem Mangla, Ld. District & Sessions Judge cum Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala, National Lok Adalat pertaining to all types of cases (except non compoundable criminal cases) was held in District Patiala on 12.11.2022. On the eve of National Lok Adalat, 29 judicial benches including 18 in Patiala, 05 in Rajpura, 03 in Nabha and 03 in Samana were constituted in District Patiala. 01 Co-ordinate bench was constituted in Police Station, Women Cell at Patiala to dispose of matrimonial complaints filed prior to the registration of FIRs. Separate Bench of Consumer Redressal Commission was also constituted for speedy disposal of pending cases. Apart from this, 01 bench was constituted in Revenue Court of the District Patiala for settlement of maximum cases pertaining to mutation and partition etc. During this National Lok Adalat, 18790 cases were taken up under different categories and 6182 cases were settled through mutual compromise involving amount of Rs. 628826662/-.
During this National Lok Adalat, Tarsem Mangla, Ld. District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chaiman, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala alongwithSushma Devi, CJM/Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala visited the benches of this National Lok Adalat and encouraged the parties to settle their dispute amicably.
While telling about the benefits of Lok Adalats, Tarsem Mangla, Ld. District and Sessions Judge Patiala told that when a case is settled in Lok Adalat, its award becomes final and no appeal lies against it. Moreover, court fees (if any paid ) is refunded to parties and parties to dispute get speedy disposal of their dispute and that too as per their own mutually settled terms. So, there is a win-win situation for both parties. Primary objective of the Lok Adalat is to settle disputes amicably through compromise, so as to save the time and money of the parties and to reduce personal enmity between them. Except, non-compoundable criminal cases, all kinds of cases, even at pre-litigative stage, can be brought before lok adalats for amicable settlement.
The important feature of this Lok Adalat was the settlement of 292 cases by the two family court benches presided over by Lukhwinder Kaur Duggal, Ld. Principal Judge, Family Court, Patiala and Deepika Singh, Ld. Additional Principal Judge, Family Court, Patiala. All these cases were related to matrimonial disputes and with the efforts of Presiding Officers as well as Members of the Lok Adalat Benches, these matters were got amicably settled. Separated families were got reunited after the long period of litigation in the court. Likewise, a seven years old civil case was settled with the efforts of Lok Adalat Bench presided over by Monica Sharma, Civil Judge (SD) Patiala and its members. The dispute was between land-lord and tenant regarding one quarter in the factory area, Patiala. The compromise was effected between the parties as per which a cheque of Rs. 5 Lacs was handed over by land-lord to the tenant and key of the rented premises was returned back by the tenant to land-lord in the presence of Tarsem Mangla, Ld. District and Sessions Judge-cum- Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala.
