Context: For Lok Adalats, speed overrides quality .The system must look beyond swift disposal of cases and focus on just and fair outcomes.
About 

• Lok Adalat is one of the alternative dispute redressal mechanisms, it is a forum where disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/ compromised amicably.
• The Lok Adalats are formed to fulfil the promise given by the preamble of the Indian Constitution– securing Justice – social, economic and political of every citizen of India.

Why do people go to Lok Adalats?

Huge Pendency in Formal Judicial System: As per National Judicial Data Grid there exists enormous pendencies in the formal judicial setup. 

• More than 3 crore cases are pending in district and subordinate courts, over 57 lakhs in high courts and above 66000 in supreme court.
• As per a rough estimation, it will take around 320 years to settle the existing backlog.

Greater Control: As it is a party-driven process, it encourages parties to reach an amicable settlement.

Speed: Sometimes lakhs of cases are disposed in a single day which is not possible even in other Alternate mechanisms like arbitration, conciliation, etc.

• Flexibility: Lok adalat is not bound by procedural laws like the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908, or the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

Affordability: No fees are charged from parties by the Lok Adalat.
Finality of Awards: The award of Lok Adalat is like a civil court’s decree but can’t be appealed in the formal courts. Hence, cases are not dragged on for years and speedier settlement takes place.
Issues

• A fall in performance is witnessed since 2017. NLAs now cover a variety of subjects while earlier they were subject matter-specific. The average cases settled by NLAs in 2015 were around 18 lakhs. It has now reduced to 13.3 lakhs in 2019 as per NALSA’s data.
• Similarly, the efficiency of E-Lok adalats is not at par with physical Lok adalats.
• It is conciliatory in nature. Therefore, it is alleged that justice is sometimes undermined to do speedy disposal as conciliation doesn’t always lead to justice delivery.
• Unequal bargaining power exists between the parties. Strong parties like insurance companies, electricity boards etc. can easily put pressure on a poor person to accept discriminatory awards.

Constitutional basis

• Article 39A of the Constitution provides for free legal aid to the deprived and weaker sections of the society and to promote justice on the base of equal opportunity.
• Articles 14 of the Constitution also make it compulsory for the State to guarantee equality before the law.

Statutory provisions

• Under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 Lok Adalats have been given statutory status.
• The decision made by the Lok Adalats is considered to be a verdict of a civil court and is ultimate and binding on all parties.

No appeal

• There is no provision for an appeal against the verdict made by Lok Adalat.
• But, they are free to initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction by filing a case by following the required procedure, in exercise of their right to litigate.

Nature of Cases to be Referred to Lok Adalat

• Any case pending before any court.
• Any dispute which has not been brought before any court and is likely to be filed before the court.
• Provided that any matter relating to an offence not compoundable under the law shall not be settled in Lok Adalat.