REGISTERED NO. DL-33004/2002

The Gazette of India

EXTRAORDINARY

PART II — Section 2

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

No. 11]

NEW DELHI, FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 2002/ CHAITRA 1, 1924

Separate paging is given to this Part in order that it may be filed as a separate compilation.

39 of 1987.

LOK SABHA

The following Bill was introduced in Lok Sabha on 22nd March, 2002.

BILL N O . 25 OF 2002

A Bill further to amend the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987.

BE it enacted by Parliament in the Fifty-third Year of the Republic of India as follows:—

1. This Act may be called the Legal Services Authorities (Amendment) Act, 2002.

2. In the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (hereinafter referred to as the principal

Act), in section 11 A, in sub-section (2), in clause (a), for the words "senior Civil Judge", the

words "senior-most Judicial Officer" shall be substituted.

3. In section 22 of the principal Act, for the words "Lok Adalat", wherever they occur,

the words "Lok Adalat or Permanent Lok Adalat" shall be substituted.

4. After Chapter VI of the principal Act, the following Chapter shall be inse;

namely.—

'CHAPTER VIA

PRE-LITIGATION CONCILIATION AND SETTLEMENT

22A. In this Chapter and for the purposes of sections 22 and 23, unless the

context otherwise requires,-—

(a) "Permanent Lok Adalat" means a Permanent Lok Adalat established

under sub-section (1) of section 22B;

Short title.

Amendment

of section

11 A.

Amendment

of section 22.

Centurion of

new Chapter

VIA,

Definitions.

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY

[PART If—

Establishment

of Permanent

Lok Adalats.

Cognizance of

cases by

Permanent

Lok: Adalat

(b) "public utility service" means any—

(/) transport service for the carriage of passengers or goods by air,

road or water; or

(//) postal, telegraph or telephone service; or

(Hi) supply of power, light or water to the public by any establish-

ment; or

(<v) system of public conservancy or sanitation; or

(v) service in hospital or dispensary; or

(v/) insurance service,

and includes any service which the Central Government or the State Govern-

ment, as the case may be, may, in the public interest, by notification, declare to

be a public utility service for the purposes of this Chapter.

22B. (/) Notwithstanding anything contained in section 19, the Central

Authority or, as the case may be, every State Authority shall, by notification,

establish Permanent Lok Adalats at such places and for exercising such jurisdic-

tion in respect of one or more public utility services and for such areas as may be

specified in the notification.

(2) Every Permanent Lok Adalat established for an area notified under sub-

section (/) shall consist of—

(a) a person who, is or has been, a district judge or additional district

judge or has held judicial office higher in rank than that of a district judge,

shall be the Chairman of the Permanent Lok Adalat; and

(/•>) two other persons having adequate experience in public utility

service to be nominated by the Central Government or, as the case may be, the

State Government on the recommendation of the Central Authority or, as the

case may be, the State Authority,

appointed by the Central Authority or, as the case may be, the State Authority,

establishing such Permanent Lok Adalat and the other terms and conditions of the

appointment of the Chairman and other persons referred to in clause (b) shall be

such as may be prescribed by the Central Government.

22C, (/) Any party to a dispute may, before the dispute is brought before any

court, make an application to the Permanent Lok Adalat for the settlement of dispute:

Provided that the Permanent Lok Adalat shall not have jurisdiction in respect of

any matter relating to an offence not compoundable under any law:

Provided further that the Permanent Lok Adalat shall also nqt have jurisdiction

in the matter where the value of the property in dispute exceeds ten lakh rupees:

Provided also that the Central Government may, by notification in the Official

Gazette, increase the limit often lakh rupees specified in the second proviso in con-

sultation with the Central Authority.

(2) After an application is made under sub-section (/) to the Permanent Lok

jdalat, no party to that application shall invoke jurisdiction of any court in the same

dispute.

(3) Where an application is made to a Permanent Lok Adalat under sub-section

(/). it—

(a) shall direct each party to the application to file before it a written

statement, stating therein the facts and nature of dispute under the application,

points or issues in such dispute and grounds relied in support of, or in opposi-

tion to, such points or issues, as the case may be, and such party may supple-

ment such statement with any document and other evidence which such party

SEC. 2]

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY

5 of 1908.

1 of 1872.

deems appropriate in proof of such facts and grounds and shall send a copy of

such statement together with a copy of such document and other evidence, if

any, to each of the parties to the application;

(b) may require any party to the application to file additional statement

before it at any stage of the conciliation proceedings;

party to the application to the other party, to enable such other party to present

reply thereto.

(4) When statement, additional statement and reply, if any, have been filed under

sub-section (J), to the satisfaction of the Permanent Lok Adalat, it shall conduct

conciliation proceedings between the parties to the application in such manner as it

thinks appropriate taking into account the circumstances of the dispute.

(5) The Permanent Lok Adalat shall, during conduct of conciliation proceedings

under sub-section (4), assist the parties in their attempt to reach an amicable settle-

ment of the dispute in an independent and impartial manner.

(tf) It shall be the duty of every party to the application to cooperate in good

faith with the Permanent Lok Adalat in conciliation of the dispute relating to the

application and to comply with the direction of the Permanent Lok Adalat to produce

evidence and other related documents before it.

(7) When a Permanent Lok Adalat, in the aforesaid conciliation proceedings, is

of opinion that there exist elements of settlement in such proceedings which may be

acceptable to the parties, it may formulate the terms of a possible settlement of the

dispute and give to the parlies concerned for their observations and in case the parties

reach at an agreement on the settlement of the dispute, they shall sign the settlement

agreement and the Permanent I.ok Adalat shall pass an award in terms thereof and

furnish a copy of the same to each of the parties concerned.

(8) Where the parlies fail to reach at an agreement under sub-section (7), the

Permanent Lok Adalat shall, if the dispute does not relate to any offence, decide the

dispute.

22D. The Permanent Lok Adalat shall, while conducting conciliation proceedings

or deciding a dispute on merit under this Act, be guided by the principles of

natural justice, objectivity, fair play, equity and other principles of justice and shall

not be bound by the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and the Indian Evidence

Act, 1872.

22E. (/) Every award of the Permanent Lok Adalat under this Act made either, on

merit or in terms of a settlement agreement, shall be final and binding on all the parties

thereto and on persons claiming under them.

(2) Every award of the Permanent Lok Adalat under this Act shall be deemed to

be a decree of a civil court.

(3) The award made by the Permanent Lok Adalat under this Act shall be by a

majority of the persons constituting the Permanent Lok Adalat.

(4) Every award made by the Permanent Lok Adalat under this Act shall be final

and shall not be called in question in any original suit, application or execution

proceeding.

(5) The Permanent Lok Adalat may transmit any award made by it to a civil court

having local jurisdiction and such civil court shall execute the order as if it were a

decree made by that court.'.

Procedure of

Permanent

Lok Adalat.

Award of

Permanent

Lok Adalat to

be final.

SEC. 2]

TOE

GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY

STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS

The Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 was enacted to constitute legal services

authorities for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the

society to ensure that opportunities for securing justice were not denied to any citizen by

reason of economic or other disabilities and to organize Lok Adalats to ensure that the

operation of the legal system promoted justice on a basis of equal opportunity. The system

of Lok Adalat, which is an innovative mechanism for alternate dispute resolution, has

proved effective for resolving disputes in a spirit of conciliation outside the courts.

2. However, the major drawback in the existing scheme of organisation of the Lok

Adalats under Chapter VI of the said Act is that the system of Lok Adalats'is mainly based

on compromise or settlement between the parties. If the parties do not arrive at any

compromise or settlement, the case is either returned to the court of law or the parties are

advised to seek remedy in a court of law. This causes unnecessary delay in the dispensation

of justice. If Lok Adalats are given power to decide the cases on merits in case parties fails

to arrive at any compromise or settlement, this problem can be tackled to a great extent.

Further, the cases which arise in relation to public utility services such as Mahanagar

Telephone Nigam Limited, Delhi Vidyut Board, etc., need to be settled urgently so that

people get justice without delay even at pre-litigation stage and thus most of the petty

cases which ought not to go in the regular courts would be settled at the pre-litigation stage

itself which would result in reducing the workload of the regular courts to a great extent. It

is,

therefore, proposed to amend the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 to set up

Permanent Lok Adalats for providing compulsory pre-litigative mechanism for concilia-

tion and settlement of cases relating i.o public utility services.

3. The salient features of proposed legislation are as follows:—

(/) to provide for the establishment of Permanent Lok Adalats which shall

consists of a Chairman who is or has been a district judge or additional district judge

or has held judicial office higher in rank than that of the district judge and two other

persons having adequate experience in public utility services;

(;7) the Permanent Lok Adalat shall exercise jurisdiction in respect of one or

more public utility services such as transport services of passengersor goods by air,

road and water, postal, telegraph or telephone services, supply of power, light or

water to the public by any establishment, public conservancy or sanitation, services

in hospitals or dispensaries; and insurance services;

(Hi) the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Permanent Lok Adalat shall be upto

rupees ten lakhs. However, the Central Government may increase the said pecuniary

jurisdiction from time to time. It shall have not jurisdiction in respect of any matter

relating to an offence not compoundable under any law;

(/v) it also provides that before the dispute is brought before any court, any

party to the dispute may make an application to the Permanent Lok Adalat for

settlement of the dispute;

(v) where it appears to the Permanent Lok Adalat that there exist elements of a

settlement, which may be acceptable to the parties, it shall formulate the terms of a

possible settlement and submit them to the parties for their observations and in case

the parties reach an agreement, the Permanent Lok Adalat shall pass an award in terms

thereof. In case parties to the dispute fail to reach an agreement, the Permanent Lok

Adalat shall decide the dispute on merits; and

SEC. 2]

THE GAZETTE OF INDIA EXTRAORDINARY

FINANCIAL MEMORANDUM

Clause 4 of the Bill seeks to insert section 22B in the Legal Services Authorities Act,

1987 which establishes the Permanent Lok Adalats consisting of a Chairman who is or has

been a district judge or additional district judge or has held judicial office higher in rank

than that of a district judge and two other persons having adequate experience in public

utility services. These Permanent Lok Adalats will provide compulsory pre-litigative mecha-

nism for conciliation and settlement of cases relating to public utility services. Enforce-

ment of the said provision would involve expenditure of recurring nature from the Con-

solidated Fund of India. It is not possible at this stage to indicate precisely the quantum of

expenditure involved as the expenditure will depend upon the terms and conditions of

appointment of Chairman and other persons to be specified under the rules made under the

said Act and will be met out of the grants-in-aid given to the Central Authority, that is,

National Legal Services Authority (NALSA).

MEMORANDUM REGARDING DELEGATED LEGISLATION

Clause 6 of the Bill seeks to insert a new clause (la) after clause (/) of sub-section (2)

of section 27 of the principal Act, This new clause empowers the Central Government to

make rules in respect of other terms and conditions of appointment of the Chairman and

other persons constituting the Permanent Lok Adalat under sub-section (2) of the proposed

section 22B.

2. The matters in respect of which rules may be made are matters of procedure or

administrative detail. The delegation of legislative power is, therefore, of a normal

character.

G.CMALHOTRA,

Secretary-General

PRINTED BY THE MANAGER, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA PRESS (PLU), MINTO ROAD, NEW DELHI

AND PUBLISHED BY THE CONTROLLER OF PUBLICATIONS, DELHI, 2002.

MGIP(PLU)MRND—6012GI—24-05-2002.