City's first matrimonial adalat has many takers

NEW DELHI: The first-ever matrimonial lok adalats kept the courts in Delhi unusually busy on Saturday. Organized by the Delhi Legal Services Authority, these adalats had 90% participation, seen as they are as a less troublesome answer to litigation.
Although settlements weren't reached in every case, on the basis of initial performance audit, DLSA now intends to continue with the concept in all the five lower courts in the city.
Initially introduced to take on some burden of the main court, the segregation of cases into traffic and matrimony is only expected to increase the success rate of the concept. Going by the statistics, a total of 269 matrimonial cases were taken up by eight lok adalats on Saturday.
"The participation rate,'' said Sanjay Sharma, project officer, DLSA, "was extremely high in all the courts and we are expecting a good number of disposal of cases.'' The hearing of cases was carried out in the presence of one retired additional district and sessions judge and one lawyer mediator.
While the Rohini court set up three lok adalats, Karkardooma and Tis Hazari courts had two lok adalats each, while only one operated at Patiala House courts.
Explaining the driving force behind the matrimonial lok adalat, Asha Menon, member Secretary, DLSA said: "The idea is to offer an informal platform for settlement of matrimonial disputes and at the same time decongest the court from such matters.''
The initiative of matrimonial lok adalat had many takers. With obvious advantages for those involved in the dispute, advocates too found the concept very healthy.
Naomi Chandra, an advocate in one the cases of domestic violence present in a lok adalat at Patiala House on Saturday said family disputes are inherently more volatile. "Hence during these sessions, the judges, inspite of going into the merits of the cases, also explore the possibility of settlement and then proceed,'' said Chandra. According to her, these sessions offer the parties an opportunity to reach settlements without undergoing the pain of a trial.
But the lok adalats left many disappointed as well. Colonel Onkar Chopra, who attended the session at a Rohini court for a domestic violence case involving his daughter, was highly dissatisfied. "I am yet to see a more disorganized affair where cases are being disposed in such a mechanical manner. No monitoring is put into the sessions and the entire concept is just like making a mockery of law. I waited the whole day only to be heard for a few minutes. Forget about guiding my case into some conclusive end.''