हिंदी
Barnala, March 12 2022
As per the directions of National Legal Services Authority, New Delhi and Punjab State Legal Services Authority, SAS Nagar, a National Lok Adalat was organized on 12.03.2022 at District Court Complex, Barnala under the able guidance of Sh. Virinder Aggarwal, Ld. District & Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Barnala.
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Sh. Virinder Aggarwal, Worthy Chairman, DLSA has informed that to dispose of all type of Pre-Litigative and Pending cases by compromise, apart from his own bench, 10 more benches of Sh. Barjinder Pal Singh Ld. Addl. District & Sessions Judge-I, Sh. Kapil Aggarwal Ld. Principal Judge, Family Court, Sh. Kuljit Pal Singh, Ld. Chairman, Permanent Lok Adalat (PUS), Sh. Vineet Kumar Narang Ld. Civil Judge (Sr. Div.), Ms. Sucheta Ashish Dev, Ld. Chief Judicial Magistrate, Sh. Gurbir Singh, Ld. Secretary, DLSA, Smt. Surekha Rani Ld. Addl. Civil Judge (Sr. Div.), Sh. Vijay Singh Dadwal, Ld. Civil Judge (Jr. Div.), Sh. Chetan Sharma Ld. Civil Judge (Jr. Div.) and Ms. Babaljit Kaur, Ld. Civil Judge (Jr. Div.) were constituted.
Sh. Virinder Aggarwal, Ld. Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Barnala informed that total 1680 cases were taken up in this National Lok Adalat and out of which 657 Cases were disposed of and awards of Rs. 5,49,89,200/- were passed. 772 pre-litigative cases were also taken up. These are cases where parties are disputing the claims but no formal proceedings are pending in any Court. In such like cases claims can be filed on simple paper without any court fee and Lok Adalats tries to amicably resolve the dispute by calling the parties. He told that Judicial Officers worked very hard in this COVID-19 period and made efforts in Pre-Lok Adalats and prevailed upon the parties to enter into compromise and finally awards were passed in National Lok Adalat.
In Case titled “State Vs Gian Chand” and “Gian Chand Vs State of Punjab”, parties who are collaterals were at dispute since 10.05.2012 and Gian Chand and Gagandeep Sharma were alleged to have inflicted injuries on the person of Rani Kaur, Binder Kumar and Ram Lal and FIR under Section 325, 323 read with section 34 of IPC was registered at P.S. City Barnala. Parties hotly contested the criminal litigation and after protracted trial Gian Chand and Gagandeep Sharma were convicted and sentenced to Undergo Rigorous Imprisonment of 18 months alongwith fine of Rs.6000/- each. Complainant party preferred appeal against enhancement of sentence and accused party filed appeal against their conviction and sentence. Matter was got compromised and offence compounded it with the efforts of the Lok Adalat and today compromise (Ex.C1) was executed between the parties. Both the parties are closely related to each other. In this manner, 10 years old dispute pending between close relatives was settled with the intervention of Lok Adalat and this would result into peaceful relations between warring relatives and would enhance peace and tranquility between the relatives.
In another case titled as State Vs. Kiranjit Kaur, brief facts of the case are that in CRA/70/2016, the main case FIR No 05 dated 22.01.2014, U/s 323/324 IPC, was registered against accused Kiranjit Kaur, in Police Station Sehna and in this case, Challan against above said accused was presented on 13.02.2014, in the Court of Judicial Magistrate Ist Class, Barnala and in this case accused Kiranjit Kaur was acquitted on 17.03.2016, after that complainant of this case Manjit Kaur has preferred a Criminal appeal against the judgment dated 17.03.2016 in the appellate Court at Barnala on 02.05.2016. Now this appeal was pending for arguments, but after a long litigation of about 9 years, today i.e. 12.03.2022, the parties have come to the compromise and by suffering the statements before the National Lok Adalat, matter has been settled between the parties amicably after 9 years.
In another complaint titled as Kaka Singh v/s Rama Krishan Finance, a complaint U/s 138 of NI Act, the appellant was convicted by the trial Court and was sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for a period of one year and he was ordered to pay compensation of Rs. 1,00,000/- to respondent finance company. The appellant challenged the conviction by filling an appeal against the judgment of trial Court. In the appellate Court, parties effected compromise and the appellant paid cheque amount of Rs. 2,00,000/- to respondent finance company. Now this appeal, which was pending since 2016, has been disposed of due to compromise between the parties in National Lok Adalat today i.e. 12.03.2022.
Sh. Virinder Aggarwal, Worthy Chairman, District Legal Services Authority, Barnala also informed that there are number of benefits of these National Lok Adalats like speedy disposal of cases, award of Lok Adalat is deemed to be the decree of the Civil Court, no appeal lies against the award of Lok Adalat and further decisions are taken through compromise which leads to peace and tranquility among the parties and society at large, orders regarding refund of entire Court fee are made, decisions are final in nature etc. He also informed that if any litigant is willing for settlement of his dispute through National Lok Adalat he can request the concerned Presiding Officer of the Court where his case is pending or in case of Pre-Litigative matters, request can be made to Secretary, District Legal Services Authority, Barnala for taking up his/her case in the Lok Adalat. In the end, he made appeal to the people to take maximum benefit of these Lok Adalats and get speedy disposal of their disputes in future National Lok Adalats to be held on 14.05.2022, 13.08.2022 and 12.11.2022.
In order to arises the impact of National Lok Adalat on litigation and litigants, a survey was got conducted by involving law students of Guru Kashi University, Talwandi Sabo, Bathinda. Students interacted various litigants, whose cases were settled in National Lok Adalat. This has provided an opportunity to students to interact with litigants and to observe and note behaviour of various litigants.
