BANGALORE: Litigation in India, especially on the civil side, is often a prolonged affair.

There have been instances of two generation having lived and left this earth before members of the third generation were awarded judgements in cases such as property disputes.

Attempting to reach a speedy rapprochement through legal but non-formal avenues is what the Lok Adalats in Bangalore have been doing.

One such held last week managed to amicably settled not less than 60 cases that may have dragged on in a regular court for months or years.

A Division Bench of District and Sessions Judge S.S. Nagarale and Advocate-Conciliator A.S. Sesha Sayee heard the cases.

These included criminal appeal, estate partition suits, injunction suits, money recovery suits and so on. ``

They were settled by the parties arriving at a final settlement. If a case is decided by a Lok Adalat, there can be no appeal or revision against the order passed. The matter ends there and parties who may have been fighting each other for years together can part in a cordial manner,'' Mr. Sesha Sayee said.

He wanted people turn up in larger numbers and approach the Lok Adalat to get their disputes settled instead of wasting time, money and energy by filing cases in courts and getting them processed for years.

The Lok Adalat will have further sitting in court halls on the 4th floor of the City Civil Court complex up to October 31.

The parties to a dispute additionally benefit by getting full return of the court fees they may have paid. ``While both sides cannot win a case, they can have the satisfaction of having ended a litigation,'' he added.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu