Sh. Pushpinder Singh, Civil Judge, Sr. Divn.-cum-Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Amritsar.
Amritsar 11 September 2021 As per the directions given by National Legal Services Authority and Punjab State Legal Services Authority, SAS Nagar, Mohali. Under the guidance of Smt. Harpreet Kaur Randhawa, Hon’ble District & Sessions Judge, Amritsar a National Lok Adalat was held on 11.09.2021 at District Courts Amritsar, Ajnala and Baba Bakala Sahib. In this regard, in total 34 benches have been constituted; 28 Benches at Amritsar, 1 Bench of Permanent Lok Adalat, 4 Benches at Ajnala and 1 Bench at Baba Bakala Sahib were constituted for taking up and disposal of maximum cases in National Lok Adalat. A total number of 9805 cases were taken up in this National Lok Adalat and 5871 cases were disposed of.
Categories of Cases Taken up in this National Lok Adalat are as Criminal Compoundable, Bank Recovery, Cheque Bounce, Matrimonial Disputes, Electricity and Water bills, Telecoms, MACT Matters, Labour Disputes, Traffic Challans etc.
Today during the proceeding of a matter pending in the court of Ms. Paramjit Kaur, Addl. Principal Judge, Family Court, Amritsar case titled as Gurinder Singh versus Amanpreet Kaur for divorce under Hindu Marriage Act. The fact was that the marriage between the parties was solemnized on 08.10.2010 at Patti according to sikh rites. Two children were born out of this wedlock. But due to some disputes between the parties the couple got separated in the year 2016. Today the matter was put up before the National Lok Adalat and after sheer efforts of the lok adalat the matter between the parties got settled and the couple suffered a statement before the lok adalat to live together at matrimonial home and have withdrawn the case.
It was told by the Ld. Chairman that the Lok Adalats are organized by Legal Services Authorities, are an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mode wherein pre-litigative and pending cases in the courts would be disposed on the basis of amicable settlement without any expense on the part of litigants. It is free of cost and expeditious method to bring litigating parties to a settlement of their disputes and saving them from prolong litigation under adversarial system of adjudication which is generally perceived to be time consuming, complex and costly. Lok Adalats are also instrumental in reducing the burden on arrears of the court disposal of long pending litigation between the parties.