Protesting against what they term developments in the legal sector detrimental to the interests of lawyers, bar associations in Kerala will boycott a lok adalat to be held across the State on Saturday.
The boycott, probably the first in the State, may hit the fourth edition of the adalat, organised as part of a national campaign to ensure speedy justice and reduce the pendency of cases and workload of courts.
1.22 lakh cases lined up
As many as 1.22 lakh cases have been lined up for Saturday, including 39,540 pending ones. Ernakulam has the maximum number of cases, 13,834.
On an average, around 20,000 cases are settled at each adalat.
While a few bar associations have formally communicated the boycott decision to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA), the organisers of the event, some others have informally asked its members to abstain from the initiative.
Lawyers’ grouse
It was the decision of the Kerala High Court to transfer the compensation amount awarded by Motor Accident Claims Tribunals directly to the bank accounts of victims and a slogan of the KeLSA’s campaign, Vekkeel Venda, Fees Venda, that called for amicable settlement of disputes though adalats without a lawyer and paying fee that provoked the lawyers.
The two issues “went against the integrity of advocate profession”, said a boycott notice served by the Ernakulam association.
As these decisions have hit the interests of lawyers, they will not cooperate with KeLSA and boycott all its activities, including adalats, said P.T. Jose, president of the Ernakulam association. No lawyer would cooperate with KeLSA except for the mediation process, Mr. Jose said.
Responding to the developments, K.T. Nisar Ahammed, member secretary, KeLSA, said the directive to transfer the compensation amount directly to the bank accounts of the victims was irrevocable as the decision followed an order of the Supreme Court.
The authority had earlier withdrew the campaign notice, which inadvertently mentioned the slogan.
The campaign was meant for the Permanent Lok Adalat, which aimed at amicability settling disputes through conciliation, he said.
Adalat objectives
Besides settling a large number of cases, relief is provided to the litigants on a massive scale.
An adalat held in October this year settled cases involving ₹190 crore and disbursed ₹95 crore as compensation to the victims of motor accidents, said Mr. Ahammed.
He urged the lawyers to withdraw the boycott call as it would hurt the speedy dispensation of justice besides denying significant revenue to the government.
