Delhi's third mega Lok Adalat on Sunday made a strong case for more like it. Over one lakh cases were resolved in a single day as binding judgements were handed out on matters as complicated and compoundable as recovery suits and injunction suits to as petty as electricity theft, cheque bounce, traffic challans and minor thefts.

The Lok Adalat, set up by the high court and distric courts in coordination with Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLAS), with 260 judges clearing cases by the minute, awarded as much as Rs 18 crore in compensation to aggrieved parties.

Lok Adalats have been instrumental in clearing pendency in civil courts, drawing statutory powers from the Legal Services Authority Act, 1987. While this alternative redressal mechanism does expedite cases which would have otherwise been lengthy and expensive court affairs, it also provides for a final and binding solution in such cases. A clause in the Act makes it mandatory for parties being heard by Lok Adalats to agree to a final resolution without the possibility of appeal. Thus, it ensures that verdicts do not raise a fresh crop of cases clogging the courts.