Lok Adalat In India – Access to Justice or Gimmick?

Lok Adalat is a kind of Alternative Dispute Resolution. It is a mechanism to provide speedy justice in matters that can be settled between the parties. Parties can approach the Lok Adalat on their own or sometimes the Court also refers the cases to the Lok Adalat. However, the question arises whether the Lok Adalat is really that effective in providing easy access to justice or not?

According to the data provided on the website of the National Legal Services Authority, the regular Lok Adalats from April 2015 to March 2016 have resolved 1,28,217 cases.

The first ever National Lok Adalat was organized on March 9, 2019, in which around 10.19 lakh cases were disposed of in all over the country under the guidance of the National Legal Services Authority.

In 2020, the second National Lok Adalat was organized in seven States and two Union Territories on June 25 and June 26, through which more than 20 lakh cases were resolved.

On September 9, 2023, the third National Lok Adalat was held through which more than 1.7 crores cases were settled down in all over the India, under the supervision of the National Legal Services Authority.

With the above statistics, we can conclude that the Lok Adalat is an effective way to resolve cases in an easy, cheap, and fast manner. There is no doubt even after this much success we need to make some improvements in enhancing the manner of providing fast justice through Lok Adalat and other methods of Alternative Dispute Resolution.