MUMBAI: In the highest settlement in the last five years, close to 19,000 cases were disposed of at the National Lok Adalat held in the city on Sunday. According to the Mumbai District Legal Services Authority, it included 9,238 pending matters, and 2,413 pre-litigation matters. The total settlement amount was more than Rs504 crore.
In a first, 836 out of 11,651 litigations were disposed of through the online mode. Hitendra Wani, secretary, Mumbai District Legal Services Authority, said this was a record in the history of Lok Adalat. In a civil case relating to a disputed Kurla flat, the plaintiff attended the proceedings from the USA, while the defendant was a city resident.
“Pre-counselling sessions were held thrice in the online mode by the Lok Adalat panel headed by Judge Kishor Jaiswal, advocate Kirti Godbole and Kedar Purav. Due to the pre-counselling sessions, the matter got amicably settled before the online Lok Adalat,” Wani said. The relevant document was digitally signed by both the parties.
Additionally, close to 100 Income Tax disputes pending in the criminal court were also settled with additional chief metropolitan magistrate IR Shiekh and special public prosecutor Amit Munde at the helm.
The settlement will bring in around Rs 37 crore revenue for the Central government. Shriniwas B Agrawal, principal judge and chairman of the Mumbai District Legal Services Authority was present on Sunday.
