This year’s second national Lok Adalat conducted in Tamil Nadu on Saturday ended up settling 80,655 cases and awarded ₹421.70 crore, according to a press communique issued by Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA). The fete was achieved by constituting 442 Lok Adalat benches across the State.
Acting on the directions of the National Legal Services Authority which had fixed dates for conduct of four national-level Lok Adalat this year, TNSLSA constituted 434 benches at the district and taluk level to take up motor accident claims, cheque dishonour cases, civil cases, matrimonial disputes and labour disputes for settlement.
Similarly, the Madras High Court Legal Services Committee led by its chairman Justice R. Mahadevan constituted four benches at the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai and three more Lok Adalat benches at the Madurai Bench of the High Court. One additional bench was constituted at the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
The seven Lok Adalat benches in the High Court were presided over by sitting judges of the court. They, along with the district and taluk level benches, ended up settling 55,779 pre-litigation cases leading to an award amount of ₹311.60 crore and 24,876 pending cases leading to an award amount of ₹110.10 crore.
Providing the break up, TNSLSA secretary A. Nazir Ahmed stated that 1,489 cheque dishonour cases; 1,912 motor accident compensation claims; 794 civil cases; 119 matrimonial disputes (except divorce) and 38 labour disputes were settled amicably and that 605 of those cases were more than five years old.
Madras High Court Legal Services Committee secretary K. Sudha said, the court’s seven Lok Adalat benches led by Justices Sunder Mohan, K. Kumaresh Babu, P.B. Balaji and K. Govindarajan Thilakavadi in Chennai and Justices S. Srimathy, K.K. Ramakrishnan and S. Ananthi in Madurai settled 63 cases and awarded ₹8.21 crore.
