Sh. Manjinder Singh, Member Secretary, Punjab State Legal Services Authority, SAS Nagar, visited the Alternative Dispute Redressal (ADR) Centre, District Courts Complex Patiala, to supervise its work. He inspected the records being maintained in the Legal Aid Defense Counsel system as well as the front office, DLSA office, and Patiala. During this visit, he interacted with retainer lawyers in the front office as well as legal aid defense counsels. Ms. Manni Arora, Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala, was also present there.
On this occasion, he said that the National Lok Adalat pertaining to pre-litigative cases and all types of pending cases in the courts and tribunals, i.e., cheque bounce cases, money recovery cases, labor and employment disputes cases, electricity, water bills, and other bill payment cases, maintenance cases, cases of criminal compoundable offenses, MACT cases, land acquisition cases, service matters relating to pay and allowances and retirement benefits, revenue cases, and other civil cases (such as rent, easmentary rights, injunction suits, specific performance suits, etc.), is going to be held in District Patiala on 09.12.2023. For this purpose, benches of judicial courts will be constituted at Patiala, Rajpura, Samana, and Nabha.
He further said that the primary objective of the Lok Adalats is to settle disputes amicably through compromise, so as to save the time and money of the parties and reduce personal enmity between them. Except for non-compoundable criminal cases, all kinds of cases, even at the pre-litigative stage, can be brought before Lok Adalat for amicable settlement. He also said that when a case is settled in Lok Adalat, its award becomes final and no appeal lies against it. Moreover, court fees (if any) are refunded to the parties, and parties to a dispute get speedy disposal of their dispute as well, as per their own mutually settled terms. So, there is a win-win situation for both parties.
As such, an appeal is made to the public to put forward their pending disputes before the upcoming Lok Adalats so as to save their valuable time and hard-earned money. For this purpose, every litigant willing to settle through Lok Adalat can request the presiding officer of the concerned court where his case is pending. Even in compoundable criminal cases, a party can file an application for bringing up the matter in Lok Adalat. In case of a pre-litigative matter, a request can be made to the Ld. Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Patiala. Detailed information in this regard can be obtained from the website www.pulsa.gov.in or from the toll-free helpline no. 1968 and the District Legal Services Authority, Patiala, contact number 0175-2306500.
