Most of the litigants are auto drivers
The High Court Legal Service Committee had constituted six benches and 774 cases were registered for this month's Lok Adalat.
Chennai: The Lok adalat (LA) for the month took place on Aug 8 and handled bank matter cases such as loan recovery cases. Most of the litigants present at the Adalat were auto drivers. Chandran (name changed), also an auto driver, who was waiting for his turn said that he had been asked to pay a total amount of Rs 23,000, but was unable to due to financial constraints and health reasons. “I hope the judge will understand my problems and help reduce the amount.”
One of the bank managers at the LA, Sitaraman V, from Central Bank said, “When it is a customer who has property to his name or can afford to pay back the loan then we directly file a case against him in court. Only for people who cannot afford to pay back the loans we present their cases to the LA. Sometimes their loans can even be reduced by 50 per cent or in some cases they don’t have to pay the interest. This is highly beneficial to them and this way the bank can also get the amount back.”
The loan takers can pay back the money in installments as well if suggested by the LA. Sitaram also explained that the LA was an easier option for the bank because it was difficult to get the loan borrowers to visit the bank. But the fear of the law makes them appear before the judge, who will listen to their grievances.
“Since they can present their problems to someone and are confident of getting some relief, they make sure they attend the mediation,” he added. The High Court Legal Service Committee had constituted six benches and 774 cases were registered for this month’s LA. Among the registered cases, 55 were settled for an amount of about Rs 2 crores. In Madurai, three benches were constituted and 494 cases handled. Of them, 35 were settled for about '1 crore.
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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