The coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult to process most of the things physically, therefore a new platform has been adopted to operate many of our transactions online.
Our Judiciary system has also adopted this new platform and has named the courtsas virtual courts where the hearings are done through video conferencing.
Lok Adalat is a concept under the Legal Services Authority Act, wherein the awards given by it is regarded as a decree given by the civil court and is binding on both the parties.
Recently few states were successful to hold E-Lok Adalats including Delhi, Chandigarh, and Jammu & Kashmir. Now Odisha becomes the part of the list by holding E-Lok Adalat in all its 30 districts and High Court successfully.
This was held on Saturday (September 12, 2020) and the award was given on video conferencing with the judges, lawyers, litigants, insurance companies, and bank representatives.
This step was taken keeping in view the safety of the litigants and the guidelines issued for the coronavirus. At least 2,061 cases were disposed of by various E-Lok Adalats and 171 prior cases were filed.
The E- Lok Adalat of High Court disposed of a total of 107 motor accident claim appeals giving the claimants award of approximately 7 crores rupees, whereas the district level E- Lok Adalats settled 665 cases related to the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal giving the claimants award of rupees 30 crores.
