Lok Adalat settles decade-old family feud in 30 minutes

MUMBAI: A Kurla-based family that huddled together on the first floor of the city civil and sessions court could perhaps be considered the most telling success of the country's first National Lok Adalat (people's hearing) that took place on Saturday. An 82-year-old matriarch, her two sons and five daughters had spent over a decade shuffling between courtrooms trying to settle their internal squabbles, but in vain.
It took only about half-an-hour and a bit of patient coaxing by a three-member judicial panel on Saturday for the entire family to reach an amicable solution. The Khan family was one of the many litigants who got an opportunity to settle their differences at the National Lok Adalat, a quasi-judicial initiative of the National Legal Services Authority undertaken in courts across the country on Saturday. The Lok Adalat is an alternative dispute resolution mechanism and its decree is equivalent to that of a civil court. Since 2000, the state has arranged 33,037 Lok Adalats benefiting over 33 lakh people, but this is the first time it was undertaken at the national level.
The Khan family dispute arose after Najibunnisa Khan approached a court alleging that her sons had partitioned her late husband's property in Kurla (W). Her contention was that while they were enjoying the fruits of his wealth, they weren't looking after her well enough. The family spent 10 years between the Bombay high court and civil court. On Saturday, the wheel-chair bound Najibunnisa was in fact the oldest litigant at the Lok Adalat.
Advocate Sadaf Khan, who appeared for the octogenarian, said she didn't want a case against her name in her twilight years and the resolution brought much jubilation among family members. "We will give you all an undertaking that we will pay our mother Rs 20,000 as maintenance every month," Najibunnisa's elder son Mohammad Khalil Khan promised the panel. Their lawyer Javeed Hussein told TOI that the sons had also given an undertaking that their mother was welcome to stay with them whenever she wanted, for as long as she liked. "If not for the Lok Adalat, their dispute could have stretched on for another 20 years," he believes.
The city civil court was replete with such sweet endings. Thane resident Yashwant Bhonsale got his loan dispute settled with the State Bank of India, while Agripada resident Deepak Solanki resolved his dispute with the BMC to get his water connection restored to his residence. Overall, 37,975 cases were settled across all courts in Mumbai during the Lok Adalat.
Advocate Ajay Gujarathi, secretary, Mumbai District Legal Services Authority, said 3 crore cases were pending across courts in India and such mechanisms helped reduce the burden on the judiciary. "It also gives courts more time to spend on important cases," he explained.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission took on a financial dispute involving a group of 74 depositors and managed to settle matters among 28 of them. Another 16 are due for settlement in the next hearing. "As a panel, we were happy that the Maha Lok Adalat got off to a good start. When the majority in a group show that matters can be settled with little give and take, others pay heed too," said Indrani Malkhani who was part of a three-member panel.