Now, Lok Adalats for public utility services

MUMBAI: In a move that will decongest the civil courts of petty disputes relating to public utility services, the Maharashtra government has decided to set up four Permanent Lok Adalats to hear such cases.
For example, a consumer of Maharashtra State Electricity Board who feels that he has been overbilled can approach such Lok Adalats. The Adalat will first work towards an amicable settlement between the two parties but if that is not acceptable, it go for a final settlement which will be deemed to be a decree of the civil court.To appeal against the final settlement, the litigant will have to approach the high court.
The four Permanent Lok Adalats, which will hear cases involing sums under Rs 10 lakhs, will be set up at Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Aurangabad. They will be headed by retired district judges who will be entitled to a fee equivalent to their last drawn salary.
"This is the first initiative of the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority (MSLSA) and we had been working on it for the past two years,'' said its member-secretary K K Sonavane.
The MSLSA was constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987, and it's objective is, ``Access to justice for all''. It provides free and competent legal services to the poor and organises Lok Adalats with the aim of taking real, practical and positive steps to ensure that there is equality and fairness for all in the justice process.
The Authority can itself file a public interest litigation or can finance a PIL on behalf of the poor or illiterate persons.
This Act defines public utility services as: i) transport service, ii) postal or telephone serive, iii) supply of power, light or water by any establishment or system of public conservancy or sanitation, iv) service in a hospital or dispensary and v) insurance service.
With a view to help the huge number of people fighting pension cases, MSLSA intends including services pertaining to pension in the definition of public utility services. The Legal Services Authorities Act empowers the state government to include any services by notification as `public utility service' in the interest of the public at large.
The government of Maharashtra issued a notification for setting up Permanent Lok Adalats as envisaged under Section 22B of the Legal Services Authorities Act on July 10 last year. However, it was only on September 20 this year that the amendment to hike the fees of the chairperson of the Adalat from Rs 1,000 a day to the last salary drawn was passed.