Justice Magrey inaugurates National Lok Adalats at Budgam, Anantnag, Pulwama

Budgam : Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey, Executive Chairman, JKLSA and Member NALSA today inaugurated visited several districts and inaugurated “Third National Lok Adalats” at district court complexes in Budgam, Anantnag and Pulwama districts.During visit to different districts, Justice Magray inspected Lok Adalat benches and distributed various awards of compensation to victims of MACT and other disputes.The matters placed before the Benches included Civil, Criminal Compoundable, Cheque bounce, Bank matters, MACT, Matrimonial, Tenancy, Electricity and Pre-litigation matters, maintenance family disputes, civil disputes, land acquisition cases, revenue cases, traffic cases, cases under municipal act, grievances relating to women, children and disabled cases for settlement.On visit to Budgam, Justice Magray in presence of Principal District and Sessions Judge Budgam, Mohammad Ashraf Malik, District Magistrate Budgam Shahbaz Ahmad Mirza, SSP Budgam Tahir Saleem inaugurated National Lok Adalat at ADR CENTRE in District Court Complex Budgam and distributed awards of compensations to victims of MACT amounting to Rs. 47 lakhs. Further, the highest award was in a bank recovery suit which got settled at Rs 1.90 crores.Delivering inaugural address on the occasion, Justice Magray emphasized that Lok Adalat (People’s Court) is one of the alternative dispute resolution mechanism, where the cases or disputes which are pending in a court or which are at pre-litigation stage are settled in an amicable manner.He said Lok Adalats serve very crucial functions in India due to many factors like pending cases, illiteracy, poverty, high vacancy in courts etc. He reiterated that resolving disputes through Lok Adalat not only minimizes litigation expenditure, but also it saves valuable time of the parties and their witnesses.

Anoop Kumar, CPC High Court and Abdul Bari, Joint Registrar(judicial)High Court of J&K were also present on the occasion.Nevertheless, Bench No. 1, comprised of Mohammad Ashraf Malik ( PDJ Budgam) and Ms. Fozia Paul (Secretary DLSA Budgam). Bench No. 2 comprised of Sunil Sangra (Addl. DJ Budgam) and Mr. Jehangir Ahmad Bakshi (Sub Judge Budgam). Bench No.3 comprised of Malik Shabir Ahmad (CJM Budgam) and Ms Uzma Amin (JMIC Budgam). Bench No. 4 comprised of Ishtiyaq Alam Baba( Munsiff Chadoora) and A.R.Hanjura (Senior Advocate). Bench No. 5 Comprised of Mr. Javid Ahmad Parray-JMIC Beerwah and Mr. Naseer Ahmad (President, Bar Association Beerwah). Bench No. 6 comprised of Ms Danista Shafi ( JMIC Magam) and Perzada Aftab Ahmad Shah (President, Bar Association Magam). Bench No. 7 comprised of Ms Farha Bashir(JMIC Chararisharief) and Mashooq Ahmad (President, Bar Association Chararisharief) Mohammad Ashraf Malik, Chairman DLSA Budgam identified nine areas in the District Budgam which are far flung areas. These areas included Mujpathri, Raiyar , Gurwaith Ringzabal, Khag, Drung, Sutharan, Nilnag and Gogjipathri.In the District , a total number of 10,000 matters were taken up and 9000 number of matters were settled amicably by engaging all the concerned Officers of District Budgam. The total settlement amount realized in the District was Rs. 7.23 Crores. Out of the total amount, Rs 1 crore has been settled in the pre litigation matters. Fozia Paul Secretary DLSA Budgam co- ordinated the National Lok Adalat in District Budgam.Similarly, Justice Magray inaugurate the National Lok Adalat at district court complex Pulwama in presence of Principal District & Sessions Judge Pulwama and Deputy Commissioner Pulwama, Baseer Ul Haq Choudhary and others.Later The Justice reviewed the functioning of the District Court and took stock of the infrastructural requirements in the district.

The District Principal and Sessions Judge, Pulwama apprised the Justice about the functioning of the Courts and issues faced by the Lawyers, Litigants and the facilities available in the Court Complex Pulwama.He also interacted with the judicial officers and discussed issues faced by them in the smooth dispensation of the justice and added that no inconvenience or problem should be faced by the Bar members and Litigants within the Court premises and as such infrastructure needs to be Bar and Litigant friendly.The Justice also inspected the Court Rooms, E-Court Room, Judicial Staff Rooms, and facilities available for Litigants, Lawyers and overall infrastructure of the Court Complex for the smooth functioning of the Courts.Later justice distributed cheques among the beneficiaries.Justice Magrey also visited Anantnag where he took stock of the proceedings and of various cases, discussed and settled in the said Lok Adalat.On the occasion, while talking to media, Justice Magray said that around 50000 cases have been amicably settled today in various courts of J&K, He said that such cases were identified during last 2 months and settled amicably today.He lauded the services of Para Legal Volunteers for persuading the petitioners to approach their respective courts for amicable settlement of their pending Court cases. He also congratulated such petitioners whose cases were settled amicably in today’ s Lok Adalats.