Patna: Continuous Lok Adalats are being held only three days a week in Bihar's civil courts though the Bihar Gazette, 2017, states that they should be held on all working days.

The notification issued by the Bihar government on May 16, 2017, with respect to Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BSLSA) states: "Continuous Lok Adalat means Lok Adalat constituted under Section 19 of the Legal Authority Act, 1987, which holds sittings continuously and regularly on all working days of Civil Courts...."

However, in Bihar, continuous Lok Adalat is being held only on three working days at present, violating the notification issued.

Member-secretary of the BSLSA, Sunil Dutta Mishra, said: "Earlier, continuous Lok Adalats were being held once a week. But now, it is being held thrice a week."

He, however, did not give the reason behind why the notification issued by the Bihar government was not being followed.

Contradicting Mishra's statement, the secretary of the District Legal Service Authority, Patna, Sanjay Kumar Sinha, said: "Yes, there is a provision of holding continuous Lok Adalats in civil courts on all working days according to the Bihar Gazette 2017."

However, Sinha gave another reason for not holding continuous Lok Adalats on all working days. He said: "Presently, we have lesser number of cases. That's why continuous Lok Adalats are not being held more than three days in civil courts. However, once we start receiving sufficient number of cases, the number of days of holding Lok Adalats will be increased accordingly."

That the number of cases is lesser in the state, was contradicted by the lawyers' community.

An advocate of Patna civil court Amardeep Pandey said: "There are lakhs of cases pending in different civil courts of the state. How can one say that cases are less in number? Those cases should be brought to the continuous Lok Adalats for disposal."

Former member of Bihar State Bar Council, Jai Prakash Singh, shared a similar opinion. "Continuous Lok Adalats should function on all working days. Why only three days? There are lakhs of cases pending in permanent courts of compoundable nature be it criminal or family cases. There should be provision to motivate the permanent courts to pass on cases of compoundable nature to continuous Lok Adalats for final disposal. Even the Supreme Court has said that cases under Section 498 A (dowry related) should be made compoundable in nature. Then why overburden the permanent courts with such cases?" said Singh.