General Circular No.10/99

No.12/22/99-CL.IV

Government of India

Ministry of Law, Justice & Company Affairs

Department of Company Affairs

5th Floor, `A’ Wing, Shastri Bhawan

Dr. Rajendra Prasad Road, New Delhi-110 001.

Dated the 7th December, 1999

CIRCULAR

 

Subject : Constitution of permanent and continuous Lok Adalat in Ministries and Departments of the Government of India.

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Recently, the High Court of Judicature at Delhi in C.W.P. No.3003/99 (NALSA V. DAB) has given a direction on 14.5.1999 that Government of India should in the first instance set up Lok Adalats in its own Departments/Ministries for the purpose of resolution of disputes between the Government of India and its employees and private persons and the Government of India at Delhi. Accordingly, to begin with, the Government of India has decided on 14.5.1999 to set up one Lok Adalat for the Departments/Ministries of the Government of India for the purpose of resolution of disputes between the Government of India and its employees and private persons in Delhi. The Lok Adalat will be sitting in the premises of Patiala House till a suitable permanent accommodation is located and it will start functioning from 11th December, 1999.

2, The Lok Adalat is a conciliatory mechanism where not only disputes pending in courts can be resolved but even matters which have not reached a formal adjudicatory forum, i.e. matters at pre-litigative stage can also be settled by resolving them amicably at the threshold so as to avoid any litigation at a later stage. All the cases, in which the courts situated in Delhi have jurisdiction, may be referred to this Lok Adalat. If a legal action can be entertained by courts in Delhi, the same may also be referred to the Lok Adalat for resolution. In other words, the jurisdiction of this Lok Adalat will be co-extensive with that of courts located in Delhi. The scope of the Lok Adalats is very wide so as to include all types of disputes with the only exception of non-compoundable criminal offences.

3. A Lok Adalat can pass an award only on the basis of a compromise or settlement between the parties and not otherwise. But an award made by the Lok Adalat in terms of the compromise shall be deemed to be a decree of a civil court and shall be binding and non-appealable.

4. With a view to identify appropriate cases relating to the Department of company Affairs in Delhi which may be referred to the Lok Adalat for resolution of the disputes, Shri M.L. Sharma, Joint Director (Legal) in the Department of Company Affairs, Shastri Bhavan, New Delhi – 1 (Telephone No.3389263) has been nominated as the Nodal Officer. Those who want to avail of the facility of resolution of their disputes by the Lok Adalat may contact the Nodal officer with necessary application in the prescribed proforma for referring them to the Lok Adalat. The application for settlement of the legal dispute at the pre-litigation stage is to be made in triplicate in the proforma enclosed as Annexure-I and application for settling the case pending in Court/Tribunal through Lok Adalat is to be made in triplicate in the proforma annexed in Annexure- I-A.

5. A copy of the scheme (Annexure R-II) for constitution of a permanent and continuous Lok Adalat for Ministries/Departments of the Government of India in this regard is also enclosed with the request that wide publicity may be given to the scheme among all concerned.

Yours faithfully,

 

Sd/-

(M.L. Sharma)

Joint Director (Legal)