Lok Adalats & Legal Aid in India: Present Status & Future Prospectus

Shah Muneeb Raza * Justice in India is precious only for the poor. When we talk of Justice we talk for the common man and his quest for Justice. He is not the rich affluent trader, industrialist or professional but the ordinary man in the town, city or village living in ordinary circumstances. He belongs to the poor and lower strata of the society. As a village folk, he is concerned with the adjudication of his rights and his claims in the cultivator land, its crops, house site or a part thereof, matrimonial disputes, compensatory claims for the lands acquired or for the motor accident suffered and other small civil disputes and criminal cases. He has no means and capacity, whatsoever to indulge in, or defend, any litigation in the courts but human nature as it is, he gets inescapably involved in litigation, civil or criminal and once involved he must pursue and contest it to its logical end even while rendering himself to the state of helplessness and bankruptcy. The onus of this bankruptcy lies on the Indian judicial system which is highly expensive and depressingly slow and as the saying goes, in court litigation, the victor is really the vanquished and the vanquished is actually dead. Problems of delays and expensive litigation has an adverse effect on the common man who has hardly an enduring and staying capacity as against the stronger and more powerful strong adversary. These problems, though, have engaged the attention and consideration of several legal luminaries of the country and as a result some procedural changes have been made and alternative forums like the Service Tribunals, Motor Accident Compensation Claims Tribunals, Railway Tribunals, and Consumers Forums have been created, as to ensure speedier disposal of specified categories of litigation and to reduce the workload in the courts. The rate of disposal has increased to a considerable extent, but the overall institution continues to exceed disposal. A look at the statistics of institution and disposal in 1999 and 2006 in the High Courts would show that the total institution has gone up from 11, 22,430 to 15, 89,979 and disposal from 9, 80,474 to 14,50,602. Similarly, in the subordinate courts also the institution has gone up from 1,27,31,275 to 1,56,42,129 and disposal from 1,23,94,760 to 1,58,42,438. Practically in all these cases it is the common man who is involved. Lok Adalat (court of people) has come as a supplemental forum to help and aid the judicial system as a result of the constitutional mandate contained in
*

Student, B.A.LL.B. (Hons.) II, Faculty of law, AMU- Aligarh.202002 email-sainiki2656@gmail.com

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Article 39-A of the Constitution of India inserted through the 42nd amendment in 1976. Article 39A of the Constitution of India provides for free legal aid to the poor and weaker sections of the society and ensures justice for all. To carry out this constitutional mandate, State Legal Aid & Advice Boards have been set up almost in all the states of the country, headed by the Apex Body known as Committee for Implementing Legal Aid Schemes. In 1987, the Legal Services Authorities Act was enacted by the Parliament which came into force on 9th November, 1995 with an object to establish a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society on the basis of equal opportunity. The National Legal Services Authority (NALSA) has been constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to monitor and evaluate implementation of legal services available under the Act. Legal Aid in the form of Court-fees, Court expense, engagement of Counsel to initiate and contest cases before the courts/Tribunals is extended to the eligible person who seek it, namely, Women, Children, Members of Scheduled Castes/Tribes, Ex-army personnel and all others whose annual income does not exceed Rs. 50,000/- . As to bring in more competent, wellknown and senior lawyers for rendering Legal Services and Legal Aid, payment of better honorarium to the lawyers who provide Legal Aid has been considered. In appropriate cases, payment of the entire expenses including the normal fees of the lawyers is provided by the government. Lok Adalat has a positive contributory role in the administration of Justice. It supplements the efforts and work of the courts and the area of contribution chosen for the purpose specially concerns and helps the common man, the poor, who rightfully claim speedy and cheap justice. When the bread earner dies in a motor accident, the victims family expects and requires to be provided compensation without the last delay. Undue delay in settlement of Motor Accident Compensation claims in most cases defeats the very core of the purpose. It is in this area that Lok Adalat is rendering very useful service to the needy. It is no means achievement that till now as many 2,68,00,000 Motor Accident Compensation claims were settled at about 7,25,000 Lok Adalats. In about 16,87,000 Motor Accident Claim cases, more than Rs. 75,93,00,00,000 has been awarded as compensation. It is not merely the question of payment, the time of expense factor and saving of victim families from harassments involved in execution and appeal proceedings are of considerable importance. Lok Adalats are making their indispensible contribution in the area of matrimonial cases too, including those under Sec 125 Cr.P.C. In matrimonial cases first point of dispute generally discussed is about maintenance and in
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Lok Adalats that points are settled. Lok Adalat for matrimonial disputes is functioning on regular basis at the Boards level where not only advice is rendered in matrimonial matters but efforts are made to settle through mediation, disputes, whether pending in the courts or not, and compromises arrived at are then required to be filled by the parties before the court concerned for formal orders. Lok Adalats can, beyond a shadow of a doubt, claim proud achievement in the disposal of petty criminal cases punishable by fine. At present 52,00,000 cases relating to petty offences are pending throughout the country in District and subordinate courts. The majority of cases are of petty nature and if decided in a limited time frame the huge pendancy can be eased up. Lok Adalats are playing an important role in disposing of these cases. Methodology adopted in these cases is to organize maximum number of magisterial courts to work as Lok Adalats. Service of summons is done by post for which fund are specially allocated by the board. As regards the quantum of fine for the other minor acts, monitoring is done to maintain uniformity and reasonableness. Big district where pendency of criminal cases is very heavy specially chosen. Bulk disposal of such cases relieves the magisterial courts of heavy burden of work enabling them to regulate their case diary to take up cases pertaining to serious offences. By adopting such methodology the pendency would be reduced by 20%. Lok Adalats, the most popular of all alternative disputes redressal (ADR) mechanisms, has found its presence in another area pertaining to banks. The banks have started preferring the Lok Adalat route to the time-consuming process of fighting civil cases in courts to recover bad personal loans and credit card dues. The cases relating to bouncing of cheques have also been taken up and a record number of 7,300 pending cases relating to dishonouring of cheques have been disposed in one such attempt in six different district courts in the national capital. Settling of these cases by Lok Adalats would definetly reduce the burden on judicial forums, as in case of non-settlement of these disputes they would end up as civil suits in courts? The programme of Legal Aid and Lok Adalat is a means of great social service particularly to the poor, backward, ignorant and exploited sections of the society. The states have taken it up and implemented it with missionary zeal. In a spirit of service and commitment about 96,99,000 people have benefited through legal aid and advice throughout the country till now, in which about 13,83,000 persons belonging to Scheduled Caste and 4,64,000 people of Scheduled Tribe communities were beneficiaries.

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The future of Lok Adalats in India seems to be thriving as the procedures followed at Lok Adalat put the Indian legal system to shame as it is shorn of all customary legal rituals and formalisms. Lok Adalats are very effective in bringing about expeditious remedy because the settlements are done after mutual consultation and consent. The settlement is final, as neither of the parties can appeal against the Lok Adalat ruling. There are no charges involved and no protocols to be followed to formally file a suit against either party. The feature of a Lok Adalat that makes it an outright choice for adjudication of matters trivial in magnitude is its inexpensive remedy with legal status. The awards by Lok Adalat are to be considered as legally binding as is a decree of a court: this was enforced by the apex body of Indian legal structure, the Supreme Court. Quick disposition of matters attracts litigants towards this ancient form of jurisdiction and it can be rightly said that sunny days are back again.

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