Justice U U Lalit inaugurates National Lok Adalat at Srinagar

Srinagar, May 14: Justice U. U. Lalit, Judge, Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman, NALSA, who was in Srinagar in connection with the foundation stone laying of the New High Court building, inaugurated the National Lok Adalat in District Court Complex Srinagar in presence of Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Executive Chairman, J&K Legal Services Authority.
Justice Lalit visited the bench no. 1 dealing with MACT Cases and in his presence few cases were settled including the one injury case where the victim of the accident is in coma for the last five years due to head injury. With the cooperation of the counsel for the claimants and Shriram General Insurance Company and with the intervention of the bench an amount of Rs. 1.2 Crores was settled as compensation and the cheques were disbursed to the claimants on spot. Justice Lalit also visited the bench dealing with matrimonial cases. The bench informed the dignitaries that in two cases where the parties were living apart for quite some time were persuaded to enter into compromise and they left the court together alongwith their kids for a fresh start of cordial matrimonial life.
Justice Lalit during interaction with the participants complimented the role of Judicial Officers, Advocates, Insurance Companies and Banks for their pragmatic approach in settlement of cases through Lok Adalat. He said that settlement through Lok Adalat not only offers a way for the parties to settle their disputes according to their choice, which is speedy and cost effective but also blocks the pre-litigation matters from maturing into litigation. He further said that in order to have maximum response and settlements between the parties in cases like MACT, matrimonial, cheque bounce cases under NI Act, Money recovery cases, etc., pre-lok adalat sittings or pre-counselling sessions should be held regularly well before the date of National Lok Adalat so that parties may get one or more chances for entering into negotiation/dialogue with the opposite parties.