Ranchi: As many as 3,308 cases, including a suit pending for the past 20 years, were settled on Saturday through the first e-lok adalat in the state since the lockdown began in March. The exercise was held at the Ranchi civil court.
District Legal Service Authority (DLSA) said the first e-lok adalat was held at the direction of Jhrkhand high court Chief Justice Dr Ravi Ranjan.
According to the DLSA, one Sunil Kumar Chowdhary had filed a case related to property dispute valued at Rs 7,30,000 againt his brother in 2000. The case was disposed of after both the brother agreed to settle the issue amicably.
The authority also said different cases involving a total sum of Rs 1.39 crore were settled during the exercise. Among them, 29 cases were of the electricity department.
A total of 40 benches, including 28 of judicial officers and two of executive officers, were set up for the purpose. Principal judge of the family court, Piyush Kumar and judges Diwakar Pandey, S K Pandey, Dinesh Kumar and Vishal Srivastav jointly inaugurated the proceeding earlier in the day.
DLSA secretary Abhishek Kumar said, “Apart from electricity, cases related to forest, excise and compoundable criminal cases were settled.”
Notably, settlement of disputes through the physical lok adalats had come to a standstill because of the Covid-19 outbreak and the lockdown. With the starting of the e-lok adalats, disputing parties could settle their cases which in turn will reduce the number of pending cases.