The third of the four national-level Lok Adalats, planned for this year by the National Legal Services Authority led by the Chief Justice of India designate, U.U. Lalit, held in Tamil Nadu on Saturday settled around 78,000 cases and awarded over ₹440 crore in settlements.
According to a press release by the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA), 439 benches were established across the State to conduct the Lok Adalats in which more than 61,000 cases pending litigation and over 16,000 pre-litigation matters were settled.
A Lok Adalat conducted by the Madras High Court Legal Services Committee (MHCLSC), as part of the national-level event, at the principal seat in Chennai as well as the Madurai Bench on Saturday disposed of 108 cases and settled ₹13.24 crore.
Cheque dishonour cases, motor accident compensation matters, matrimonial disputes, labour disputes and civil cases were among the matters that were resolved through negotiations between the parties at the Lok Adalat.
A separate communique issued by MHCLSC Secretary K. Sudha, stated that out of 791 cases taken up for settlement, 591 were listed before the principal seat and 210 in the Madurai Bench. The former disposed of 91 cases, while the latter settled 17.
Highlighting a success story, she said, a Lok Adalat Bench presided over by Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, a sitting judge of the High Court, settled a motor accident case and ensured that the parents of a dead software engineer received ₹76 lakh.
The Lok Adalat in the State was conducted under the guidance of Madras High Court Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari, who was the patron-in-chief of TNSLSA and Justices M. Duraiswamy, chairman of TNSLSA and Paresh Upadhyay, chairman of MHCLSC.
Totally, six benches led by three sitting judges as well as three retired judges were constituted for the Lok Adalat with four Benches in Chennai and two in Madurai. They disposed of 19 cases that were pending for over five years.
Justices S. Sounthar and K. Kumaresh Babu , both sitting judges, headed different Benches in Chennai. While retired judge Malai Subramanian led the fourth bench in Chennai, the two benches in Madurai were chaired by former judges G. Chockalingam and T. Krishnavalli.
