The Legal Services Authorities across the country, under the aegis of National Legal Services Authority (NALSA), today organised the second National Lok Adalat of 2021.

Under the able guidance of Justice U.U. Lalit, Executive Chairman of NALSA, the authority also organised Lok Adalats in 32 SLSAs/HCLSCs across the country today, in both virtual and hybrid mode.

It was for the first time that Justice Lalit himself monitored the working and functioning of Lok Adalats by way of virtual conferencing. In addition, Justice Lalit interacted with Presiding Officers of Lok Adalat Benches in the Districts Courts of Fatehgarh Sahib (Punjab), Gurugram (Haryana), Panchkula (Haryana), Bharatpur (Rajasthan), Noida (Gautam Buddh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Thiruvellore (Tamil Nadu) and Kutch (Gujarat).

He further oversaw the working and functioning of Lok Adalat Benches at the High Court of Andhra Pradesh (Amaravati) and interacted with the Judges, who were presiding over the Lok Adalat at the High Court of Rajasthan (Jodhpur). The Supreme Court Judge inquired about the type of cases taken up, disposal rates and subject matter. He laid emphasis on the aspect that National Lok Adalats are imperative to reduce the huge pendency in the justice system of the country.

Justice Lalit also interacted with the Presiding officers of Lok Adalat Benches on virtual mode.

Across the country, the latest data available till 1600 hrs indicated that 5,129 National Lok Adalat Benches were held today. Total 35,53,717 cases were taken up, out of which 22,50,473 were pre-litigation cases and 13,03,244 were pending cases.

Over 11,42,415 cases were disposed of in a single day on July 10, indicating a huge achievement and success for the Legal Services Authorities. It was on account of the keen participation by the stakeholders that the Legal Services Authorities have been able to achieve this huge disposal.

The Executive Chairman of NALSA stressed on conducting Pre-Lok Adalat sittings or pre-counselling sessions before the National Lok Adalat, so that the parties may get one or more chances for entering into dialogue with opposite parties to get maximum number of settlements.

To prepare for the same and maximise the outcome of the National Lok Adalat, a preparatory Webinar was organised by the NALSA. The ‘National Lok Adalat: Challenges and way forward’ aimed at the goal of sensitising all the Chairpersons and Secretaries of District Legal Services Authorities, in order to ensure smooth and proper functioning of the National Lok Adalat.

NALSA further directed the LSAs to observe COVID-19 protocol prevalent in the States/UTs, as per the guidelines issued by the Government of India, as well as the State Governments.

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The National Lok Adalat in Kerala was preponed and conducted on July 9, wherein a total of 39,361 cases were taken up (35,404 pending cases & 3,957 pre-litigation cases) out of which 26,118 cases were disposed of (25,150 pending cases & 968 pre-litigation cases). A settlement amount of Rs 86.81 crore was awarded.

The National Lok Adalat has been postponed in Maharashtra, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Karnataka and West Bengal for August 1, July 18, August 14 and July 24, respectively. The next National Lok Adalat will be held on September 11.

New Delhi: The Kerala High Court has decided to issue general guidelines, expressing concern over the lack of professionalism in the police investigation into POCSO cases, relating to the investigation and trials to protect survivors from secondary victimization and ensure that the justice delivered is effective and meaningful.

Justice P.B. Suresh Kumar, while dealing with a POCSO case, observed that certain disturbing facts concerning the investigation and trial of the cases had come to the court’s notice.

The court also observed that POCSO cases were being investigated by police personnel who were not informed of the rights of the children or trained to deal with children and members of their family in a child-sensitive manner. Lack of professionalism was writ large in the investigation.

The judge pointed out that the guidelines published by the state government in 2015 in this regard were not available in the public domain even now. The State Legal Services Authority, which was to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the guidelines, had not even taken note of the guidelines. In fact, lack of awareness of the guidelines among the stakeholders was adversely affecting the investigation and trial of the POCSO cases, the court added.

The court took note of the fundamental flaws in the investigation, such as non-collection of legal evidence, to prove the age of the victims for want of awareness of the relevance of such evidence. Besides, evidence was not collected to establish the sexual abuse through behavioural indicators or to explain the trauma-induced counter-intuitive behaviour of the victim, thereby making the child a witness without credibility. No mechanism was adopted by the investigation offices to cross-check the veracity of the statements, including subjecting the children to psychological/psychiatric consultations.

The court also observed that lawyers were not engaged for the victims or the service of the lawyers had not been provided by the legal services authority as provided under the government guidelines.

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The court asked the Public Prosecutor and the Kerala State Legal Services Authority to express their views on the issue.

The Court has ordered to list this matter for further hearing on August 25.

-India Legal Bureau