District and Sessions Court, GautamBuddh Nagar Surajpur, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201306

LokAdalat ("Public Court" or "People's Court") is one of the Alternative dispute resolution mechanisms in India, it is a forum where cases pending or at pre litigation stage in a court of law are settled. They have been given statutory status under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987. Under this Act, the award (decision) made by the Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law. If the parties are not satisfied with the award of the Lok Adalat (though there is no provision for an appeal against such an award), they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction.

National Level Lok Adalats are held for at regular intervals where on a single day Lok Adalats are held throughout the country, in all the courts right from the Supreme Court till the Taluk Levels wherein cases are disposed off in huge numbers. From February 2015, National LokAdalats are being held on a specific subject matter every month.

In order to observe and gain knowledge , JIMS legal aid society conducted  a visit to National Lok Adalat  At District and Sessions Court, Gautam Buddh Nagar,Surajpur, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh 201306 on  8^th  September 2018. More than 30 students  visited National Lokadalat to observe  the procedure and the real scenario of  Lokadalat. The visit was headed by faculty coordinator Ms. Neha Sharma , Ms. DifyDoyil and Ms. Ravina Sharma.

The students were asked to interact with different representatives and aggrieved parties to gather  information about the problems faced by the aggrieved parties and the procedure followed for resolution of the disputes. Students divided themselves into groups and interacted with different people of different sectors. In that particular lok adalat session there were three sectors to whom the students of JIMS interacted. The classification of the sectors was categorized in  Banking, Noida Power Company Limited and  IPC.

 One of the parties with whom the students interacted was Ms. Kalsuundevi who owned a cattle farm and had taken loan of Rs.5.80 lakh in 2012. This loan was taken on the basis of the government scheme, SGSY (Swarnajayanti Gram Swarojgaryojana). She took the loan believing that she could pay back the whole of the amount by her income through the cattle farming. In the beginningshe managed to pay all the EMI’s on time. However, as the time passed, two of her family members died which added to her financial burden. She was now finding it difficult to pay any portion of the EMI. The payback period lapsed. Soon, the bank started sending consecutive notices for immediate payment. Finally, she was visited by a bank employee. She narrated her ordeal to him. However, her loan was declared as a NPA (Non-performing asset).The parties were asked by SBI to resolve the dispute through Lok Adalat. The bank gave them 50% reduction from the total amount. Her total loan was 5.80 lac after the reduction it became 2.80 lakh. Kalsuundevi agreed to this offer and the bank gave her 2 months time period to pay the remaining 2.80 lac amount.

When asked by the students whether, Ms. Kalsuundi was happy with the bank offer, she replied: “I am happy that the bank gave me this reduction in the amount after understanding our condition. The bank was very helpful towards us .They never forced us or bullied  us to give money. They always spoke politely with us.”