Lok Adalats: What They Are, and How One Is Organised

Section 19(3) and (4): the experience and qualifications of those "other persons" are prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of India for Lok Adalats organised by the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, and by the State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court for all others.

The Act stops there, which is not much help to a student who wants to know what a Lok Adalat looks like. The detail is in the National Legal Services Authority (Lok Adalats) Regulations 2009, as amended in 2019, made under section 29.

Regulation 6 sets the composition of a bench at each level. In every case the bench is a judicial member plus one or two others, and the others are drawn from a list:

• a member of the legal profession;
• a social worker of repute engaged in the upliftment of the weaker sections, including Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, children and rural and urban labour, and interested in implementing legal services schemes; at district and taluk level this may instead be a person engaged in para-legal activities of the area, preferably a woman;
• a professional from the field related to the subject matter of the Lok Adalat; and
• a mediator, or a professional, or a serving or retired senior executive.

The last two items, and the words "one or two", were inserted or substituted by the amendment of 22 October 2018. Before it, a bench was a judicial officer plus one or two of only the first two categories. The change matters: a Lok Adalat dealing with, say, insurance claims may now include somebody who understands insurance.

The judicial member differs by level. At State Authority and High Court level it is a sitting or retired Judge of the High Court or a serving or retired judicial officer. At District and Taluk level it is a sitting or retired judicial officer.

Regulations 3 to 5 and 8: how a sitting is actually arranged

This is the practical machinery MU's clinical paper is likely to ask about.

Regulation 3(1): Lok Adalats may be organised at regular intervals for a definite geographical area. A proviso requires that Special Lok Adalats shall be organised for all Family Courts at regular intervals.

Regulation 3(2): the organiser may associate members of the legal profession, college students, social organisations, and charitable and philanthropic institutions in organising a Lok Adalat.

"College students" is in the regulation in terms, and it is the clearest official statement that a law student on a clinical course has a place in this work. This is your syllabus describing your own role.

Regulation 4: the organiser must inform the State Authority of the proposal well before the date, giving the place and date, whether any outside organisation is associating, the categories and nature of cases, pending or pre-litigation, the number of cases in each category, and any other relevant information.

Regulation 5: every party whose case is referred must be informed well in time so as to have an opportunity to prepare. Two provisos: notice may be dispensed with if the referring court fixed or announced the date in the presence of the parties or their advocates; and if a party is not willing to refer their case to a Lok Adalat, the case may be considered on its merits by the court concerned.

Regulation 8: Lok Adalats may be held at such time and place and on such days, including holidays, as the organiser thinks appropriate. Regulation 6A, inserted in 2018, provides that where a Lok Adalat is held on a holiday or beyond court hours on a working day, the presiding judges, other members and staff are paid a Special Duty Allowance fixed by the State Authority, which shall not be less than the allowance recommended by NALSA.

Regulation 7: the organiser assigns specific cases to each bench and may prepare a cause list, intimated to all concerned at least two days before. And regulation 7(3) states the standard the bench must meet, which is the sentence to remember from the whole instrument: every bench shall make sincere efforts to bring about a conciliated settlement in every case put before it without bringing about any kind of coercion, threat, undue influence, allurement or misrepresentation.

Section 19(5): the jurisdiction, and the one bar

Section 19(5) is where the Act states what a Lok Adalat may deal with. A Lok Adalat shall have jurisdiction to determine and to arrive at a compromise or settlement between the parties to a dispute in respect of:

• (i) any case pending before; or
• (ii) any matter which is falling within the jurisdiction of, and is not brought before,

any court for which the Lok Adalat is organised.

That is the pending / pre-litigation division, and it runs through the whole of chapters 110 and 120. Clause (i) is a case already filed; clause (ii) is a dispute nobody has filed, which the regulations call a pre-litigation matter and define in regulation 2(ba) as a dispute between the parties which is not filed before the court.

The proviso is the only jurisdictional bar in the section: the Lok Adalat shall have no jurisdiction in respect of any case or matter relating to an offence not compoundable under any law.

A compoundable offence is one the law permits the complainant and the accused to settle, listed in the Code of Criminal Procedure and now in the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita 2023. Serious offences are non-compoundable, and the reason a Lok Adalat cannot touch them is simple: a Lok Adalat can only record what the parties agree, and the law does not allow the parties to agree away a serious crime.

Regulation 10(2) adds a second bar that is not in the section: matters relating to divorce, and criminal cases which are not compoundable, shall not be referred to a Lok Adalat. Divorce is not excluded by the Act; it is excluded by the regulation, and an answer that credits the Act with it is wrong.

Regulation 9: the sentence that defines the limit of the power

Regulation 9 is worth quoting because it says in one line what the Supreme Court later had to say at length in State of Punjab v. Jalour Singh: Lok Adalats shall have the power only to help the parties to arrive at a compromise or settlement, and while so doing shall not issue any direction or order in respect of such dispute between the parties.

A worked example

The District Legal Services Authority at Thane decides to hold a Lok Adalat on the second Saturday of next month, for motor accident claims and cheque dishonour cases.

Is a Saturday allowed? Yes. Regulation 8 permits Lok Adalats on such days including holidays as the organiser thinks appropriate, and regulation 6A provides a Special Duty Allowance for those who sit on one.

Who organises it? The District Authority under section 19(1), and the Secretary of the District Authority constitutes the benches under regulation 6(c).

What does a bench look like? A sitting or retired judicial officer, plus one or two of: a member of the legal profession, a social worker or a person engaged in para-legal activities in the area preferably a woman, a professional from the relevant field, or a mediator or senior executive. For the motor claims bench, an insurance professional would be a sensible section 6(c)(iii) member.

What has to happen before the date? The Secretary informs the State Authority under regulation 4 with the place, date, categories and numbers. Parties are notified under regulation 5 in time to prepare. Cases are assigned to benches and a cause list is circulated at least two days ahead under regulation 7.

A party writes in to say he does not want his case in the Lok Adalat. Under the second proviso to regulation 5, his case may be taken up on merits by the court instead. Nobody can be compelled into a settlement forum.

Can a bench take up a prosecution for grievous hurt? No. The proviso to section 19(5) bars any case or matter relating to an offence not compoundable under any law.

What beginners get wrong

A Lok Adalat is not a court and holds no trial. Regulation 9 says it may only help the parties to a compromise and may issue no direction or order.

It is not a permanent body. It is convened for a sitting. The Permanent Lok Adalat under Chapter VIA is a different institution.

It is not confined to small or local matters. All five levels of the legal services system may organise one, up to the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee.

Divorce is excluded by the regulations, not by the Act. Section 19(5)'s proviso bars only non-compoundable offences; regulation 10(2) adds divorce.

A Lok Adalat bench is not made up only of judges. Section 19(2) requires judicial officers and other persons, and regulation 6 lists who those others may be.

Quick revision

• Section 19(1): Lok Adalats may be organised by a State Authority, District Authority, Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, High Court Legal Services Committee or Taluk Legal Services Committee, at such intervals, places and areas as it thinks fit.
• Section 19(2) to (4): composition is serving or retired judicial officers plus other persons, whose qualifications are prescribed by the Central Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of India for Supreme Court Committee Lok Adalats, and by the State Government in consultation with the Chief Justice of the High Court otherwise.
• Regulation 6 of the NALSA (Lok Adalats) Regulations 2009: a judicial member plus one or two of a lawyer, a social worker or para-legal worker preferably a woman, a subject-matter professional, or a mediator or senior executive.
• Section 19(5): jurisdiction over (i) any case pending before, or (ii) any matter within the jurisdiction of and not brought before, a court for which the Lok Adalat is organised. Proviso: no jurisdiction over an offence not compoundable under any law.
• Regulation 9: the power is only to help the parties reach a compromise; no direction or order may be issued.
• Regulation 10(2) proviso: divorce and non-compoundable criminal cases are not to be referred.
• Regulation 7(3): sincere efforts at a conciliated settlement, without coercion, threat, undue influence, allurement or misrepresentation.

Test yourself

1. Which five bodies may organise a Lok Adalat? Under section 19(1): every State Authority, every District Authority, the Supreme Court Legal Services Committee, every High Court Legal Services Committee, and every Taluk Legal Services Committee.

2. What is the only jurisdictional bar in section 19 itself? The proviso to section 19(5): a Lok Adalat has no jurisdiction over any case or matter relating to an offence not compoundable under any law.

3. Are divorce petitions excluded from Lok Adalats by the Act? No. That exclusion comes from the proviso to regulation 10(2) of the NALSA (Lok Adalats) Regulations 2009, which says matters relating to divorce and non-compoundable criminal cases shall not be referred.

4. Who sits on a Lok Adalat bench at the district level? Under regulation 6(c), a sitting or retired judicial officer, together with one or two of: a member of the legal profession; a social worker of the described kind or a person engaged in para-legal activities of the area, preferably a woman; a professional from the field related to the subject matter; or a mediator, professional, or serving or retired senior executive.

5. A party does not want his pending case sent to a Lok Adalat. What happens? Under the second proviso to regulation 5, the case may be considered on its merits by the court concerned. A Lok Adalat works only by consent, and regulation 7(3) forbids coercion of any kind.