POWERS OF PERMANENT LOK ADALAT
A friend during pandemic times.
Permanent Lok – Adalat (PLA) is a friendly forum. It reduces the load on the overburdened judicial administration, particularly in the times of the pandemic. It being an alternate forum for certain Public Utility Services, enables creativity amongst members of legal fraternity, while providing quicker resolution of disputes, justice and win -win situation to the litigants.
PLA is provided under Legal Services Authorities Act 1987. Features and functions of Lok – Adalat and PLA are different and distinct. PLA is applicable to PRE-LITIGATION CONCILIATION IN SETTLEMENT coming under Public Utility Services, specified under Chapter VI -A, inserted with effect from June 2002.
Dispute of the nature explained below can be tried by the Permanent Lok – Adalat, the subject matter of which shall not be more than Rupees One Crore.
- Transport Service for the carriage of passenger or goods by air, road or water;
- Postal, Telegraph or Telephone services;
- Supply of power / electricity, light or water for public any establishment;
- Public conservancy or sanitation system;
- Hospital or Dispensaries Services;
- Insurance Services;
- Banking and Financial Services; (By notification, applicable to State of Karnataka & Chhattisgarh)
- Education or Educational Institutions;
- Housing and Real Estate Services; and
- supply of any kind of fuel to the public by any establishment. (By notification, applicable to State of Chhattisgarh)
- Any other services declared by the Central Govt. or the State Govt as Public Utility Service.
Any aggrieved party to a dispute relating to public utility service above, may approach Permanent Lok Adalat before the dispute is brought before any Court. If there is a dispute already before any Court, in such cases jurisdiction of PLA cannot be invoked relating to same disputes. After approaching Permanent Lok – Adalat, the disputant cannot invoke jurisdiction of any Court in the same dispute.
POWERS & PROCEDURE:
Procedure for settlement of disputes before PLA is very simple and litigant friendly; it has power to specify its own procedure for determination of any dispute coming before it. PLA shall not be bound by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and Indian Evidence Act, 1972 and it is guided by the principles of natural justice, objectivity, fair play, equity and other principles of justice.
- Any party to a dispute may make an application to the PLA requesting for settlement of dispute. After receipt of that application, PLA directs each party to file their written statement along with supporting documents;
- After collecting all such statement and documents, PLA conducts conciliation proceedings between the parties assisting them to reach an amicable settlement of the dispute in an independent and impartial manner and it shall be the duty of every party to co-operate in good faith with the PLA in conciliation proceedings;
- In the conciliation proceedings, if the PLA is of the opinion that there exists elements of settlement which may be acceptable to the parties, it may formulate the terms of possible settlement of the dispute and give to the parties for their observations;
- In case the parties reach at an agreement on the settlement of dispute, they shall sign the settlement agreement and PLA shall pass an Award in terms thereof;
- If the parties fail to reach at an agreement, the PLA shall decide the dispute on its merits and pass Award accordingly;
- Every Award passed by the PLA shall be deemed to be a Decree of Civil Court. The PLA may transmit the Award made by it to a Civil Court having local jurisdiction and such Civil Court shall execute the Award as if it were a Decree made by that Court;
- Every Award passed either on merit or in terms of settlement agreement shall be final and shall not be called in question in any original suit, application or execution proceedings and it is binding on all the parties thereto and on the persons claiming under them.
- Procedure before PLA is very simple and user-friendly. Notices to the parties may be sent through hand process, Registered Post, Courier, Email, Paper Publication or any other acceptable mode to be decided by the PLA. First priority is to settle the dispute amicably by facilitating the parties to arrive at compromise. If such settlement takes place, the dispute ends there itself once for all and both the parties will be at win-win situation. If it is not settled amicably, nothing stops PLA from proceeding to adjudicate the dispute; PLA has power to decide the dispute on the basis of available evidence. As the Evidence Act and Code of Civil Procedure are not applicable to the disputes before Lok Adalat, evidence will be accepted by way of Affidavits, which drastically avoids lengthy recording evidence and arguments, which saves time and money to the parties.
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN PERMANENT LOK ADALAT & LOK ADALAT:
PERMANENT BODY |
PERIODICAL CAMP |
| Any party can directly Approach | Only through Court |
| Jurisdiction Rs.1 Crore | No limit |
| No Settlement – Adjudicate | No Settlement – Court |
| Decision by Authority | Settlement by parties |
FEE AND EXPENSES:
No fee is payable by any party in the dispute filed before PLA. After passing Award, each party is entitled to copy of Award free of cost. However, at present, the party who approaches the PLA for the relief has to bear charges for sending notice to the opposite party against whom he has claimed relief.
EXCLUSION:
Under clause (1) & (8) of clause (C) of Sec 22 PLA shall not have jurisdiction in respect of any matter relating to an offence not compoundable under any law. In other words, PLA enjoys the mixed features & powers of mediation, conciliation & failing settlement between the parties, the powers of the Arbitrator to decide the dispute.
BENEFITS:
PLA operates as an alternate forum and facilitates quick, simple and effective access to justice. PLA has implied and concurrent jurisdiction over Debt Recovery Tribunal (DRT), Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), Consumer Disputes Redressal Forums as also over Civil disputes coming under Civil Courts, etc., except to the extent of what is saved in those Acts.
CITATIONS:
- 2012 SCC (8) Page 243: Bar Council of India V. Union of India
- 2008 SCC (7) Page 454: United India Insurance Co. Ltd V. Ajay Sinha
- 2016 SCC Online P & H 18112: Premium Acres Infrastructure V. PLA
- 2011 SCC Online Ker 3960: Dr. Ambika Kumary V. State of Keral
Prashanth Chandra .S. N,
Advocate,
ADR Practitioner,
Partner, Law & Options.
Very well written. It caters to common man and lawyers too .
This Existence of this forum and its Powers need wide publicity
One suggestion if notices are not answered powers to pass exparte orders ?
Who can be appointed as conciliators
Nice sir. Covered all aspects. Helps all to know about PLA…
Your firm is aptly named, ” Law & Options” ..in this blog of yours you have now given us Options in Law, that too options and your advise is free of cost, so well written, yet detailed,
Regards
Rajesh Rout
Your write up has come out very well, leaving no room for any doubts. 👌👌👏👏
Thanks for sharing this information which is not known to the public.
Well written article ! Explained beautifully in a simple manner
We need to have a discussion on this to take it further . It would greatly benefit the public !
Good effort for the benifit of lawyers.
Nice informative article