National Legal Services Authority (NALSA)

Web Application for free Legal Services to Prisoners

developed by NIC

constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987

State Legal Services Authorities and District Legal Services Authorities shall feed the data for each individual prison inmate in the jails within their jurisdiction

with regard to their being represented through a counsel in the court

make the legal services system more transparent

a nationwide uniform network for providing free and competent legal services to the weaker sections of the society

organises Lok Adalats for amicable settlement of disputes

identifies specific categories of the marginalised and excluded groups and formulates various schemes for the implementation of preventive and strategic legal service programmes

Lok Adalats

alternative dispute redressal mechanism

disputes/cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation stage are settled/ compromised amicably

the award (decision) made by the Lok Adalats is deemed to be a decree of a civil court and is final and binding on all parties and no appeal against such an award lies before any court of law

free to initiate litigation by approaching the court of appropriate jurisdiction

no court fee payable when a matter is filed in a Lok Adalat

role of statutory conciliators only and do not have any judicial role

Levels and Composition of Lok Adalats

State Authority Level

a sitting or retired judge of the High Court or a sitting or retired judicial officer, a social worker

High Court Level

District Level

Taluk Level

National Lok Adalat

National Level Lok Adalats are held for at regular intervals where on a single day Lok Adalats are held throughout the country, in all the courts right from the Supreme Court till the Taluk Levels wherein cases are disposed off in huge numbers. From February 2015, National Lok Adalats are being held on a specific subject matter every month.

Permanent Lok Adalat

set up as permanent bodies with a Chairman and two members for providing compulsory pre-litigative mechanism for conciliation and settlement

a dispute with respect to Public Utility Services only

Once an application has been made to PLA by one party, no party to that application shall invoke the jurisdiction of any court in the same dispute.

If PLA is of the opinion that "there exist elements of settlement in such proceedings, which may be acceptable to the parties", it shall formulate the terms of possible settlement, communicate its observations to the parties and if the parties agree, the settlement shall be signed and an award shall be passed in terms of such settlement

Only those disputes where there exist elements of settlement can be decided by the Permanent Lok Adalat. The decision or the opinion of the Permanent Lok Adalat as to whether there exist elements of settlement is also a matter which can be subjected to judicial review under Article 226 of the Constitution of India

ordinary LA adopts only a conciliatory method and does not decide a dispute, Under the civil procedure law also no appeal shall lie from a decree passed on consent of the parties

provision of Section 96(1) CPC could be relied on to establish that an appeal is not excluded

appeal lies in High Court for PLA, For Ordinary Lok Adalat - as it is a consent based redressal - no appeal on award, only fresh litigation can be done

jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India