The 4th National Lok Adalat of the year 2023 was organised by the legal services authorities across the country under the aegis of National Legal Services Authority, NALSA and the stewardship of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Judge, Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman, NALSA in 34 states or Union Territories on Saturday, December 09, 2023. The Press released by the National Legal Services Authority stated that from the State Legal Services Authorities across the country as of 6:00 PM – 1,17,43,465 cases were resolved at the 4th National Lok Adalat on December 09, 2023 which includes 11,98,278 pending cases and 1,05,45,187 pre-litigation cases and the approximate value of the total settlement amount in these cases was Rs. 20,510 crores. The Press Release stated that these figures will increase further by tomorrow which is based on updated reports to be received from the State Legal Services Authorities of the country. Therefore, due to the administrative reasons, the 4th National Lok Adalat of 2023 has been scheduled in Delhi on December 10, 2023, Chhattisgarh on December 16, 2023 and the Telangana on December 30, 2023. In this Lok Adalat, the cases involve the compoundable offences, revenue cases, bank recovery cases, motor accident claims, cheque bounce cases, labour disputes, matrimonial disputes (except divorce cases), and other civil cases were taken up. The large number of recovery matters related to financial institutions, banks, government bodies and private service providers were also taken up as pre-litigation cases, and were being settled. It has also been mentioned by the press release that the resolution of cases at Lok Adalat’s allows litigants to avoid costs and delays associated with the Court based justice system and reduces case pendency of the Courts.Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Judge, Supreme Court of India and Executive Chairman, NALSA, who supervised the 4th National Lok Adalat, highlighted that the swift resolution of cases at Lok Adalat’s will alleviate the immense pressure on the court system, while allowing judges to dedicate their valuable time and resources to more complex and urgent issues.
