Special Lok Adalat Week, 2024- A Stellar Beginning!

The recently concluded Special Lok Adalat Week in the Supreme Court from 29^th July, 2024 to 2^nd August, 2024 has been a grand success on so many different parameters. More than 1000 cases pending before the Supreme Court have been settled. But the numbers are only part of the story.

The settled cases relate to diverse areas such as motor accident & insurance claims, matrimonial & child custody disputes, service law disputes, and even land acquisition matters. As indicated by Mr. Atul Kurhekar, Secretary General of the Court in the commemoration function on 3^rd August, the Lok Adalat was the brainchild of the Chief Justice of India and work was initiated on it in April, 2024 by the Supreme Court in co-ordination with all the High Courts and District Legal Service Authorities.

As one of many members of the bar, who was invited to be part of the lok adalat panels, I could immediately notice the remarkable amount of effort that would gone into by the various District Legal Services Authorities in trying to get parties to settle in disputes some of which were complex. Large number of cases had already been settled before they came to the Lok Adalat Panel, sometimes with very innovative solutions. For instance, in one service law matter, the challenger had accepted the appointment, after the incumbent retires, which was to happen in a few months' time.

Inviting members of the bar to be part of these panels gave the participating advocates and the bar a profound sense of ownership of the Supreme Court as an institution. As advocates, we are focused on getting the court to move in the directions which we are advocating for our client. Being part of a panel, which resolves disputes, gave a very different perspective. For starters, judges approach any matter with a multifocal lens, with the positions being advanced by advocates, as only two of the multitude of possible solutions to the outstanding dispute. Second, judges have a remarkable ability to speed read and pick out the grain from the chaff. Equally impressive is their ability to move through multiple factual/legal situations with ease. These are some of the nuances of judicial work that we fail to adequately notice from across the bar.

As any practicing advocate in the Supreme Court will vouch, in large number of cases of individual litigants, by the time the matter reaches the Supreme Court, the litigants have mostly exhausted their financial resources, having incurred substantial legal fees at two earlier stages, i.e.- the trial court and the high court. A mediation-based mechanism, which is free of cost but nevertheless has a judicial oversight to ensure its fair and balanced and does not cook into the agreement the imbalances of the negotiating power between the parties is ideal for many of these parties.

While the initiative was of the Chief Justice of India, he has gone out of his way to try and institutionalize the Lok Adalat for times to come. Involvement of all the judges of the Supreme Court-including its future leadership, members of the bar and the District Legal Service Authorities across the country has hopefully put the necessary seeds of an annual justice delivery event. With the template in place, in the future, there is potential for geometric progression of the number of disputes that can be resolved through this mechanism, which is both time and cost efficient compared to conventional litigation. This can be a game-changer in not just reducing pendency but improving substantive justice in the Supreme Court and beyond.

Author is a practicing advocate in the Supreme Court of India. Views Are Personal.