People's courts and specialised courts: Lok Adalats, Gram Nyayalayas, family and fast-track courts

Detail

Why these courts exist

• Regular courts are slow, costly and far from villages. Parliament and the states built cheaper, faster and closer forums next to the regular court system.
• They follow three ideas:
• Settle, don't fight. Lok Adalats, Gram Nyayalayas and family courts all try conciliation (a neutral person helps both sides agree) before anything else.
• Go to the people. This is the idea behind mobile courts and village-level courts.

• Specialise. Fast-track and special courts deal with only one kind of case, so they can finish those cases quickly.

• Constitutional link: Art. 39A (added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976) is a Directive Principle (a guideline for the state that no court can enforce). It asks the state to give equal justice and free legal aid. The Legal Services Authorities (LSA) Act 1987 puts this into practice, and Lok Adalats work under that Act.

Lok Adalat: the "people's court"

• Definition: a Lok Adalat is a forum run by legal services authorities (NALSA at the national level, and state, district and taluk authorities below it). It settles disputes by compromise, not by deciding who is right.
• Origin: the first Lok Adalat camp was held in Gujarat in 1982.
• Legal status: the LSA Act 1987 gave it statutory status (backing in law) in Chapter VI (ss.19-22).
• Cases it can take:
• Pending cases, which are already in a court and are referred to it.

• Pre-litigation disputes, which have not yet been filed in any court.

• Kinds of disputes:

• civil cases
• compoundable criminal offences (offences that the law lets the victim settle with the accused; the list is now in the BNSS 2023, which replaced the CrPC on 1 July 2024)
• matrimonial (marriage) disputes
• motor-accident claims
• bank-recovery cases

• labour disputes

• Barred: non-compoundable offences, which are serious crimes that cannot be settled privately.

• What the award means (the award is the written settlement):
• It is treated as a decree of a civil court, so it can be enforced like a court order.
• It is final, and no appeal lies against it.
• It can be challenged only by a writ petition (a direct petition to the High Court or Supreme Court) on narrow grounds, such as fraud or no real consent.

• If the case came from a court, the court fee is refunded.

• If there is no compromise: the Lok Adalat cannot decide the case. The file goes back to the regular court, or the parties are told to go to court.

Kinds of Lok Adalat

Type	Basis	Key feature
Regular Lok Adalat	LSA Act, Ch. VI (ss.19-22)	Settlement only. No decision on merits.
National Lok Adalat	NALSA calendar	Held on one day across India, in every court at the same time.
e-Lok Adalat	Online mode, from 2020	Virtual hearings, started during COVID-19.
Permanent Lok Adalat (PLA)	s.22B, Ch. VIA (2002 amendment)	Public utility disputes. Can decide on merits if talks fail.
Special Lok Adalat (Supreme Court)	Held by the Supreme Court	29 July-3 August 2024

• National Lok Adalat output (cases disposed of, which means closed):
• 2022: 4,19,26,010 cases [2]
• 2023: 8,53,42,217 cases [2]

• 2024: 10,45,26,119 cases [2]

• The online shift: the last National Lok Adalat of 2020 was held both online and in person. It closed over 10 lakh cases with settlements worth about ₹3,228 crore [3].

• Supreme Court Special Lok Adalat: the Supreme Court held it from 29 July to 3 August 2024, in its 75th year [4][5].
• It took up pending Supreme Court cases that could be settled: matrimonial, property, motor-accident claims, land acquisition, compensation, service and labour [5].

Permanent Lok Adalat (PLA)

• Definition: a standing body set up under s.22B of the LSA Act. It was added by the 2002 amendment (Chapter VIA).

• In 2002, the government moved to bring public utility services under Lok Adalats [6].

• What it covers (public utility services):

• transport (passengers or goods)
• postal, telegraph and telephone services
• power and water supply
• sanitation
• hospitals
• insurance

• services notified later, such as banking, education and housing

• Composition: a Chairperson and 2 Members with expertise in the field [2].

• Money limit: disputes worth up to ₹1 crore [2].
• How a PLA case moves:
• Step 1: a party applies before going to any court. Once a PLA application is made, neither side can take the same dispute to a regular court.
• Step 2: the PLA tries conciliation.
• Step 3: if conciliation fails, the PLA decides the dispute on merits. It can do this only if the dispute does not involve a non-compoundable offence.

• Step 4: the award is final and binding on both sides.

• Key difference: an ordinary Lok Adalat cannot give a decision without consent. A PLA can.

Critique of Lok Adalats

• A deal under pressure is not justice. Poor litigants may accept less than their due just to end a long case.
• Volume over quality: huge single-day disposal numbers can hide small, routine cases being counted, such as traffic challans and bank dues.
• No appeal: this cuts both ways. Settlements are final and quick, but a person who was pushed into a bad deal has almost no remedy.

Gram Nyayalaya: village courts

• Definition: a Gram Nyayalaya is a regular court at the village level. It was created by the Gram Nyayalayas Act 2008, which came into force on 2 October 2009.
• Origin: the Law Commission's 114th Report (1986) recommended it.
• Where it sits: at the headquarters of the intermediate panchayat, the middle tier of panchayats at the block level.
• Who presides: a Nyayadhikari (the judge of a Gram Nyayalaya).
• The Nyayadhikari must be qualified to be a Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC), the lowest regular criminal court.

• The state government appoints the Nyayadhikari in consultation with the High Court.

• How it works:

• It can work as a mobile court, holding hearings in villages.
• It tries civil and criminal cases listed in the Schedules to the Act.
• It uses summary procedure, a short and simple trial.
• It tries conciliation first.

• It follows natural justice (fair hearing, no bias) and is not bound by strict rules of evidence.

• Appeals: civil appeals go to the District Court. Criminal appeals go to the Sessions Court.

• Weak rollout:
• 15 states have notified 481 Gram Nyayalayas. Only 309 work, in 10 states [7].
• The leading states are Uttar Pradesh (113 notified, 92 working), Madhya Pradesh (89 notified, all 89 working), Rajasthan (45/45) and Kerala (30/30) [7].
• In Andhra Pradesh (42), Telangana (55), Jammu & Kashmir (20), Goa (2) and Ladakh (2), the notified courts are not working at all [7].
• Progress has been slow. The figure was 256 working, in 10 states, in 2021 [8].

• The Supreme Court has also directed states to set them up.

• Reasons for failure: states have not set up these courts, there are not enough judges or buildings, lawyers and police are not ready to work with them, and they overlap with existing magistrate courts.

Nyaya Panchayat

• Definition: a nyaya panchayat is a village body that settles small disputes. States created them under their panchayat laws from the 1950s.
• Roots: they come from Art. 40, a Directive Principle that asks the state to organise village panchayats.
• Present status:
• Most are defunct (no longer working).
• They are not part of the 73rd Amendment (1992), which deals with elected panchayats, not with courts.
• The Gram Nyayalaya is, in effect, their professional successor: it has a trained judge in place of lay members.

Family courts

• Law: the Family Courts Act 1984.
• Where: a family court is mandatory in every city or town with over 10 lakh (1 million) people. The state sets it up in consultation with the High Court.
• What it hears: marriage, divorce, maintenance (money a person must pay to support a spouse or child), custody of children and similar family disputes.
• How it works:
• It tries conciliation first, to help the family reconcile or settle.

• Lawyers are not allowed as of right. The court may still allow a lawyer or ask for expert help.

• Why: a family dispute needs a softer, less adversarial forum than an ordinary civil court. An adversarial forum is one where two sides fight to win.

Fast-track courts (FTCs)

• Definition: fast-track courts are extra sessions courts set up to clear old pending cases, especially undertrial cases (cases where the accused is in jail awaiting trial).
• Phase 1 (2000-2011): about 1,734 FTCs, funded on the recommendation of the Eleventh Finance Commission. Central funding ended in 2011, and many courts closed or were absorbed by states.

Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs), from 2019

• How the scheme came about:
• The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2018 made punishments for rape stricter and set time limits for the investigation and trial of these cases.
• From 2019, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme (Centre and states share the cost) set up FTSCs for rape and POCSO cases.

• The scheme includes exclusive POCSO (e-POCSO) courts. POCSO is the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act 2012.

• Funding and tenure:

• On 28 November 2023, the Cabinet extended the scheme for 1 April 2023-31 March 2026, with an outlay of ₹1,952.23 crore from the Nirbhaya Fund [9].

• It was later temporarily extended up to 30 September 2026 [10].

• Courts working (FTSCs, of which exclusive POCSO courts):

Date	FTSCs working	Of which e-POCSO	States/UTs	Cases disposed of (total so far)
May 2024	755	410	30	over 2,53,000 [12]
January 2025	754	404	30	over 3.06 lakh [11]
30 April 2026	775	398	29	— [10]

• Yearly workload:
• 2023: 81,471 cases registered and 76,319 disposed of [10].

• 2024: 88,902 cases registered and 85,595 disposed of [10].

• Disposal rate: FTSCs report a disposal rate of 96.28% [13].

Other special courts

• POCSO special courts, set up under the POCSO Act 2012.
• SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act exclusive courts, which try atrocities against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
• NIA special courts, which try terror cases investigated by the National Investigation Agency.
• PMLA special courts, which try money-laundering cases.
• MP/MLA courts, which try criminal cases against sitting and former legislators.
• Commercial courts are covered in §7.

Prelims Hooks

• First Lok Adalat camp: Gujarat, 1982. Statutory status: LSA Act 1987, Chapter VI (ss.19-22).
• Lok Adalat award: treated as a civil court decree. It is final, with no appeal, and the court fee is refunded. Trap: it can never settle non-compoundable offences.
• Permanent Lok Adalat: s.22B, added by the 2002 amendment (Ch. VIA). It covers public utility services up to ₹1 crore and has a Chairperson + 2 Members [2]. It is the only Lok Adalat that can decide on merits.
• National Lok Adalat 2024: over 10.45 crore cases disposed of [2].
• Supreme Court Special Lok Adalat: 29 July-3 August 2024, in the Court's 75th year [4].
• Gram Nyayalayas Act 2008: in force on 2 October 2009. Based on the Law Commission's 114th Report (1986). Presided over by a Nyayadhikari of JMFC rank. Located at the intermediate panchayat level.
• Gram Nyayalayas: 481 notified, 309 working [7].
• Family Courts Act 1984: mandatory in cities with over 10 lakh people. No lawyer as of right.
• Fast-track courts: Eleventh Finance Commission (2000-2011). FTSCs: from 2019, funded by the Nirbhaya Fund. Trap: FTSCs come under a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, not a Central Sector Scheme [9].
• Nyaya panchayats: linked to Art. 40. They are not created by the 73rd Amendment.

Mains Points

• Lok Adalats help with access but raise justice concerns.
• Gains: crores of cases closed in a single day [2], little cost, and court fees refunded.
• Risks: settlements made under pressure, weak parties giving up their rights, and counts swollen by petty cases.

• Reform ideas: train conciliators better, review settlements that look unfair, and report results by type of case.

• Gram Nyayalayas show a law without states acting on it.

• Only 309 courts work [7], against roughly 6,000+ intermediate panchayats.

• Fixes: firm deadlines for states (the Supreme Court has already directed states to act), central funding, and merging the scheme with village-level legal aid.

• Special courts are a narrow, short-term fix.

• FTSCs depend on schemes that keep getting extended for short periods [9][10].
• New cases keep arriving, and judges are shifted from regular courts.

• A lasting cure needs more judges overall, forensic capacity, and faster investigation, along with the new procedure laws from 1 July 2024.

• Pressure on the adversarial system. Family courts, Lok Adalats and Gram Nyayalayas all put conciliation first. Together they move India toward alternative dispute resolution (ADR), that is, settling disputes outside the courtroom fight. This supports Art. 39A's promise of equal justice.