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TMI Blog2008 (12) TMI 791X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ies and the appellants and respondent present. The parties have settled the dispute and agreed to file a memorandum of settlement before the High Court to obtain orders for disposal of this appeal and for refund of court fee. A plan of the property is produced by the appellant and it is received. The plan used will form part of this order. The appellant will vacate the buildings in plot A to the respondent on or before 31st July, 2007. On such surrender, plot B will belong to the appellant and ............. A compromise deed to this effect will be drawn by the parties and file before the court. Post before the court on or before 31st July, 2007 [emphasis supplied] 3. The appellants allege that the parties could not finalise the terms of settlement as it was found that there was no access to the portion to which they had to move, and therefore no compromise petition was drawn up or filed. As the settlement was not reported, the High Court, by order dated 10.4.2008 made a second reference to the Lok Adalat. The parties and counsel again appeared before Lok Adalat. Further negotiations were unsuccessful and the Lok Adalat sent the following failure report dated 3.4 ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... unreasonable contentions are advanced now and that too coming forward with a petition to restore the appeal when the appeal itself was dismissed for reason of absence of counsel. I see no reason to allow the MJC in the circumstances, so as to enable a cantankerous litigant to continue protracting the litigation even after an award is passed at the Adalat. (emphasis supplied) 6. The said orders dated 19.8.2008 and 29.8.2008 of the High Court are challenged in these appeals by special leave. We have heard Sri P.Krishna Murthy, learned senior counsel for appellants and Sri C.S.Rajan, learned senior counsel for respondent. 7. It is unfortunate that the learned members of the Lok Adalat and the learned Single Judge totally lost sight of the purpose and scope of Lok Adalats. We may conveniently recall what this Court has said about the scope of Lok Adalats, (after referring to the relevant provisions of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987), in State of Punjab vs. Jalour Singh [2008 (2) SCC 660] :- 8. It is evident from the said provisions that Lok Adalats have no adjudicatory or judicial functions. Their functions relate purely to conciliation. A Lok Adalat determines a r ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... d directs the parties to draw a compromise deed or a memorandum of settlement and file it before the court, it means that there is no final or concluded settlement and the Lok Adalat is only making tentative suggestions for settlement; and such a proceeding recorded by the Lok Adalat, even if it is termed as an `award', is not an `award of the Lok Adalat'. 9. Although the members of Lok Adalats have been doing a commendable job, sometime they tend to act as Judges, forgetting that while functioning as members of Lok Adalats, they are only statutory conciliators and have no judicial role. Any overbearing attitude on their part, or any attempt by them to pressurize or coerce parties to settle matters before the Lok Adalat (by implying that if the litigant does not agree for settlement before the Lok Adalat, his case will be prejudiced when heard in court), will bring disrepute to Lok Adalats as an alternative dispute resolution process (for short `ADR process') and will also tend to bring down the trust and confidence of the public in the Judiciary. 10. In this case the proceedings dated 25.5.2007 is termed as an `award'. It is also described as an `order' a ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e negotiations, in their failure report submitted to the court, lest it should prejudice the mind of the court while hearing the case. For instance, the observation in the failure report dated 3.4.2008 of the Lok Adalat in this case (extracted in para 3 above) that there is no chance of settlement on account of the nature of demands made by the appellants , implied that such demands by the appellant were unreasonable. This apparently affected the mind of the learned Single Judge who assumed that the appellants were cantankerous, when the second appeal and application for restoration came up for hearing before the court. 13. We may now turn to the role of courts with reference to Lok Adalats. Lok Adalats is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism. Having regard to section 89 of Code of Civil Procedure, it is the duty of court to ensure that parties have recourse to the Alternative Dispute Resolution (for short `ADR') processes and to encourage litigants to settle their disputes in an amicable manner. But there should be no pressure, force, coercion or threat to the litigants to settle disputes against their wishes. Judges also require some training in selecting and refer ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ermitted nor be tolerated and requires to be strongly deprecated. Every Judge should constantly guard against prejudice, bias and prejudging, in whatever form. Judges should not only be unbiased, but seem to be unbiased. Judiciary can serve the nation only on the trust, faith and confidence of the public in its impartiality and integrity. 15. When a counsel who is ready in the pre-lunch session, seeks accommodation in the post-lunch session on the ground of a sudden illness or physical ailment, the court cannot refuse a short accommodation and dismiss the appeal on the ground that his client was cantankerous and unreasonable before the Lok Adalat. The two issues have no relation to each other and such dismissal can only be attributed to prejudice. The observation by the High Court that the parties having arrived at a settlement before the Lok Adalat, could not refuse to file a compromise petition in court, is also erroneous. If there was a final settlement before the Lok Adalat, there would have been an award and there was no need for the matter to come before the court for further hearing. If parties state that before the Lok Adalat that they will enter into an agreement and fi ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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