"Conflict is inevitable but combat is optional"- Max Lucado (American author & minister)

Introduction
In our justice system, the advent of "Alternative Dispute Resolution" is remarkably one of the watershed moments that will be cherished and availed by generations to come. Essentially, settlement of dispute outside court without resorting to formal court proceeding is known as Alternative Dispute Resolution; it involves set of various dispute settlement methods like mediation, conciliation, arbitration etc.

However, lately Lok Adalat, being a significant component of ADR has been quite instrumental in ensuring accessible justice to all. Lok Adalat, which literally means People's court, is a forum where disputes, either pending in court or at pre-litigation stage are settled and compromised in a cordial manner by delivering inexpensive, informal & expeditious justice to common people. In wake of its thriving popularity over time, it was accorded statutory sanction by enacting Legal Services Authority Act, 1987, which provides detailed provisions regarding organization and functioning of LokAdalat.

Structure of Lok Adalat:
According to clause 1 of Section 19 of Legal Services Authority Act, the State/ district legal services authority or Supreme Court/ High Court/ Taluk legal services committee may organize lok adalat at such places or at such intervals and for exercising such jurisdiction as it thinks fit. Moreover, clause 2 of section 19 provides that every lok adalat shall consist of such number of serving or retired judicial officials and other persons as may be specified by the agency organizing lok adalat.

Generally, on practical level, a lok adalat consists of a judicial officer as its chairman and an advocate and a social worker as its other members.

Functioning of LokAdalat:
In case of pre-litigation dispute: The matter can be referred to lok adalat on receipt of application from any of parties to dispute.

In case of dispute pending in court: Sec. 20 of the said Act provides for cognizance of cases by lok adalat. According to it, any case pending before court can be referred to lok adalat for settlement if-

• Parties agree to settle the dispute in Lok Adalat, or
• One of the parties applies for referral of the case to Lok Adalat, or
• Court is satisfied that matter can be solved by Lok Adalat.

Nature of cases to be referred to Lok Adalat:
Generally, all matters of civil nature including motor accident claims, partition claims, bonded labor dispute, matrimonial disputes, land acquisition disputes, bank's unpaid loan cases, arrears of retirement benefit cases are being taken up by lok adalat. Apart from it, criminal cases which are of compoundable nature can also be settled through lok adalat as proviso to section 19 only prohibits cases of non- compoundable offences (cases in which settlement is not permissible) from being taken up by Lok Adalat.

How advantageous Lok Adalat is to our modern justice system?
Unfortunately, ours is a country which has the largest number of pending cases in the world. As of December 2022, the total number of pending cases of all types and at all levels has risen to 5 crores out of which 4.3 crores cases, i.e. more than 85% cases, are pending in district courts itself. Furthermore, there is massive backlog of cases in higher courts also as there are 59 lakh pending cases in high courts while in case of Supreme Court the figure is over 70,000[2].

Therefore, in order to tackle these challenges, this technique of addressing disputes outside court without formal legal proceedings which is an expensive and time consuming process and involves tons of technicalities, can certainly be a beacon of hope for reducing the workload on our already overburdened judiciary by facilitating speedy disposal of cases. This way, we can certainly put an end to this huge pendency dangling over our judicial system.

Additionally, lok adalat has multiple benefits of its own which gives it an edge in resolution of disputes over formal judicial proceeding.

Some of these advantages have been listed below:

• Procedural Flexibility: There is no strict application of procedural laws like Evidence Act or Civil Procedure Code while assessing the claim. This feature of lok adalat makes the whole proceeding more convenient and easily accessible to laymen in comparison to formal lawsuits which are filled with technicalities at every step.
• Economical: Proceedings of lok adalat are free of cost as there is no fee payable if a matter is filed before Lok Adalat. Besides, as per Section 21(1) of the Legal Services Authority Act, if court fee is already paid in court, the same amount will be refunded to the complainant if the dispute has been settled at lok adalat.
• Interactive process: It is less rigid in terms of the conduct of proceedings; parties to the dispute can directly interact with the judge if they wish, which is not possible in regular courts. This characteristic of lok adalat makes it the people's court in the real sense.
• Speedy Justice: Section 20(4) of said Act directs every lok adalat to arrive at a settlement with utmost expedition in order to have a speedy trial, unlike prolonged court proceedings. Furthermore, other provisions like its award being non-appealable and binding on parties also facilitate expeditious disposal of cases.
• Finality of Award: The award passed by lok adalat is deemed to be a decree of civil court by virtue of Section 21 of the said Act, and for certain purposes, the lok adalat is deemed to be a civil court in itself. Besides, the award passed by lok adalat is final and no appeal is maintainable from it, which ensures conclusive settlement of dispute right away.

Downsides of lok adalat and way-out:

• It is true that justice delayed is justice denied; however, in some cases, justice hurried is justice buried, and both are equally dangerous to justice. Therefore, it should be made obligatory for members of lok adalat to ensure that faster justice does not come at the cost of impairing the rights of any party involved in the dispute by any means.
• Often, conciliatory and persuasive methods are used to settle disputes, and in the process, parties are somehow pressurized into giving consent to settlement half-heartedly. To avoid such complications, these techniques should be used in limit. Meting out real justice according to facts and the gravity of the case should be the first consideration instead of just ticking off the case as disposed of.
• Lok adalat revolves around settlement and compromise, but in India, often cases require punishment and correctional methods. These cases usually fail here and are then recommended to courts as lok adalat does not possess jurisdiction to deal with those cases.
• There is a lack of criminal jurisdiction as the jurisdiction of Lok Adalats with respect to criminal disputes is limited to offences which are compoundable under law. This removes crimes such as petty theft and other small crimes from the purview of Lok Adalats. Hence, this should be reviewed to bring petty crimes within the purview of Lok Adalats.

Conclusion
After duly weighing both advantages and disadvantages of this mode of alternative dispute resolution; lok adalat, it can be concluded that advent of lok adalat has truly followed the directive of Article 39A of our constitution in spirit and letter both. Indeed, it has made pursuit of justice easily accessible by supplementing and complementing our justice system to a great extent. Recently, settling down of more than 97. 64 lakh cases including 17.13 lakh pending and 80.5 lakh pre- litigation cases in first national lok adalat of 2023 under guidance of national legal services authority[3] is a living testimony to the excellent serviceability of lok adalat.

Undeniably, there are few existing shortcomings like indiscriminate use of methods like persuasive or conciliatory and sometimes there are also chances of hurried justice in order to dispose of cases swiftly, however, if these defects are remedied, the mechanism of lok adalat will certainly go a long way in realizing the goal of securing justice to all be it social, economic or political, as enshrined in the preamble of our constitution[4].

End Notes:

1. 4th year student of BALLB at University Of Allahabad
2. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pendency_of_court_cases_in_India#:~:text=4.3 crore out of 5,court cases in the world, article titled "Pendency of court cases in India" - Wikipedia
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/lok-adalat, Latest news & videos, photos about Lok Adalat, The Economic Times - Page 1
4. Constitution of India, 1950

Written By: Mridulika Pandey