(a) whether Government has proposed to set up more Lok Adalats in the country to clear pending cases in High Courts and Lower Courts;
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the number of Lok Adalats presently functioning in various States;
(c) the number of cases cleared by the Lok Adalats during the last three years, State-wise; and
(d) the extent to which it has reduced the number of pending cases in High Courts and Lower Courts?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF LAW & JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c) Lok Adalat is an important Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism available to common people. It is a forum where the disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/compromised amicably. Under the Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act, 1987, an award made by a Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal lies against thereto before any court. In order to reduce the pendency of cases in courts and also to settle the disputes at pre-litigation stage, Lok Adalats are organized by Legal Services Institutions at such intervals as it deems fit. Lok Adalat is not a permanent establishment. However, as per Section 19 of the LSA Act, Lok Adalats are organized by Legal Services Institutions as per requirement. National Lok Adalats are organized simultaneously in all Taluks, Districts and High Courts on a pre-fixed date.
In addition, Section 22B of the LSA Act also provides for establishment of Permanent Lok Adalat by every State Authority to deal with cases of public utility services at pre-litigation stage. 337 Permanent Lok Adalats are functioning in various States & UTs. State-wise Permanent Lok Adalats and cases settled is at Annexure-A. State-wise cases settled (both at pre-litigative stage and pending cases) by Regular Lok Adalats and National Lok Adalats during the last three years is at Annexure B and C respectively.
(d) During last three years, Regular Lok Adalats have settled 20,00,437 cases and National Lok Adalats have settled 81,55,052 cases pending in High Courts and Lower Courts.
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Annexure-A
Statement as referred to in reply to the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3934 for 18.03.2020 raised by Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde & Ors. -Lok Adalats
A statement containing the number of cases settled in Permanent Lok Adalats (Public Utility Services) during the last three financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 (upto December, 2019)
S. No SLSA PLAs Functioning Cases Settled
2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 (upto Dec., 2019)
1 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 1 1 1 0
2 Andhra Pradesh 9 1404 1805 1317
3 Arunachal Pradesh 0 0 0 0
4 Assam 20 312 99 34
5 Bihar 9 78 491 521
6 Chhattisgarh 5 163 122 67
7 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 0 0 0 0
8 Daman & Diu 0 0 0 0
9 Delhi 2 11922 18897 14376
10 Goa 2 93 107 57
11 Gujarat 4 439 365 110
12 Haryana 21 40966 39930 37213
13 Himachal Pradesh 4 75 70 95
14 Jammu & Kashmir 0 0 0 0
15 Jharkhand 24 3137 6414 8649
16 Karnataka 6 8673 4014 4547
17 Kerala 3 818 544 298
18 Lakshadweep 0 0 0 0
19 Madhya Pradesh 50 12094 951 378
20 Maharashtra 4 10089 2981 2848
21 Manipur 0 0 0 0
22 Meghalaya 0 0 0 0
23 Mizoram 2 0 0 0
24 Nagaland 0 0 0 0
25 Odisha 18 1583 1352 1424
26 Puducherry 0 0 0 0
27 Punjab 22 19626 9427 6723
28 Rajasthan 35 3208 4423 4095
29 Sikkim 0 0 0 0
30 Tamil Nadu 32 0 0 20
31 Telengana 6 4856 6243 2128
32 Tripura 6 49 245 177
33 Chandigarh 1 3205 1653 514
34 Uttar Pradesh 47 1663 2340 1007
35 Uttarakhand 4 5 151 282
36 West Bengal 0 0 0 0
Grand Total 337 124459 102625 86880
Annexure-B
Statement as referred to in reply to the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3934 for 18.03.2020 raised by Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde & Ors. - Lok Adalats.
State-wise number of cases setted in Regular Lok Adalats during the financial years 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 (upto December,2020)
S.No. Name of the State Authority
(1) 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20 (upto Dec., 2019)
Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(2) Disposal of Pending Cases
(3) Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(4) Disposal of Pending Cases
(5) Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(6) Disposal of Pending Cases
(7)
1 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 114 318 75 0 99 191
2 Andhra Pradesh 2969 13243 2605 11126 1489 7547
3 Arunachal Pradesh 23 25 13 13 69 49
4 Assam 4072 105079 605 57673 644 32185
5 Bihar 2089 194 1171 190 810 122
6 Chhattisgarh 435 11013 602 5085 376 1119
7 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 0 10 2 3 0 0
8 Daman & Diu 0 0 0 0 0 0
9 Delhi 3685 0 4393 0 12893 2333
10 Goa 226 397 21 111 51 29
11 Gujarat 3324 15750 843 17819 1099 15473
12 Haryana 20679 128849 0 143703 0 99466
13 Himachal Pradesh 99 52800 73 75107 0 60385
14 Jammu & Kashmir 1509 2976 3615 6996 1933 13189
15 Jharkhand 1592 6314 3563 8905 1574 4735
16 Karnataka 8426 105846 6335 83281 1870 28888
17 Kerala 18896 8142 25667 6065 12931 3594
18 Lakshadweep 13 0 198 0 0 0
19 Madhya Pradesh 2795 5082 603 2958 908 7561
20 Maharashtra 21 1096 9 789 1300 6592
21 Manipur 0 0 28 0 0 0
22 Meghalaya 0 10 86 80 0 0
23 Mizoram 498 28 411 66 288 110
24 Nagaland 0 0 0 0 0 0
25 Odisha 176 267148 62 82655 22 36617
26 Puducherry 774 337 846 165 378 143
27 Punjab 871 6109 6216 23050 274 3572
28 Rajasthan 2462 70815 2373 8300 907 4322
29 Sikkim 292 385 577 152 313 123
30 Tamil Nadu 12666 6358 9413 7731 6030 5396
31 Telengana 3052 11383 3973 9059 4228 5597
32 Tripura 206 73676 331 56738 612 6475
33 Chandigarh 39 4 88 0 21 0
34 Uttar Pradesh 3639 5930 14437 27139 1467 1802
35 Uttarakhand 0 16868 4 7804 26 26001
36 West Bengal 888870 27985 285892 29762 7494 10126
Grand Total 9,84,512 9,44,170 3,75,130 6,72,525 60,106 3,83,742
Pending Cases settled = Col (3) + Col (5) + Col (7) = 20,00,437
Annexure-C
Statement as referred to in reply to the Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3934 for 18.03.2020 raised by Dr. Shrikant Eknath Shinde & Ors. - Lok Adalats.
State-wise number of cases settled in National Lok Adalats during the years 2017, 2018 and 2019.
2017 2018 2019
S.No. Name of the State Authority
(1) Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(2) Disposed of Pending cases
(3) Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(4) Disposed of Pending cases
(5) Disposal of Pre-litigation Cases
(6) Disposed of Pending cases
(7)
1 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 288 825 0 0 0 0
2 Andhra Pradesh 28616 118949 28996 66021 8224 89191
3 Arunachal Pradesh 386 595 947 391 399 189
4 Assam 23521 35143 19841 11351 16434 5162
5 Bihar 190786 26614 151050 19933 144071 20913
6 Chhattisgarh 28971 17159 36340 34022 20762 36886
7 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 14 83 10 160 1860 161
8 Daman & Diu 45 82 37 70 198 51
9 Delhi 6884 24514 12022 63524 28065 43312
10 Goa 1147 1319 1438 1266 456 1109
11 Gujarat 63637 132205 41818 95287 43469 149681
12 Haryana 29739 44326 32984 58157 40633 62665
13 Himachal Pradesh 2413 21183 4943 15355 10695 14737
14 Jammu & Kashmir 43631 31214 19312 40018 8944 23233
15 Jharkhand 51003 33084 47385 24673 33098 16130
16 Karnataka 26588 58682 14830 85127 32020 249829
17 Kerala 17510 21683 66208 39805 83528 45201
18 Lakshadweep 98 36 103 0 1 3
19 Madhya Pradesh 212237 121574 191949 118620 157676 76757
20 Maharashtra 356795 154554 660134 148491 334306 94070
21 Manipur 1802 167 1600 89 1917 77
22 Meghalaya 941 962 447 489 409 286
23 Mizoram 977 22 1056 20 470 25
24 Nagaland 283 182 2061 267 829 144
25 Odisha 30701 118564 13371 27917 13394 29803
26 Puducherry 977 4016 670 4075 872 3322
27 Punjab 27122 78084 37627 74144 20307 68709
28 Rajasthan 76287 103326 47754 117867 49890 169208
29 Sikkim 164 114 141 92 115 50
30 Tamil Nadu 167404 373314 106217 369536 29909 310685
31 Telengana 79806 93117 45114 43021 56241 54597
32 Tripura 2049 3200 2526 319 3112 242
33 Chandigarh 332 12227 326 11457 907 10281
34 Uttar Pradesh 660803 1194296 1656280 1068336 1498268 986137
35 Uttarakhand 3976 13014 7851 26636 9113 16945
36 West Bengal 339595 89910 19250 43387 25891 36999
Grand Total 24,77,528 29,28,339 32,72,638 26,09,923 26,76,483 26,16,790
Pending Cases settled = Col (3) + Col (5) + Col (7) = 81,55,052