Husband-Wife Fight Solved By Lok Adalat Bench Of Chief Justice, Kapil Sibal

New Delhi: 

Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud today chaired a Lok Adalat and shared the bench with senior Supreme Court Advocate Kapil Sibal, a rare occasion at the court.

The Chief Justice and Mr Sibal were part of the Lok Adalat along with Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Manoj Mishra and Supreme Court Advocate On Record Association President, Vipin Nair. The cases are heard between July 29 and August 2 and are heard from 2 pm after the court’s work.

Referring to a case that came to one of the Lok Adalats, the Chief Justice today said, “I remember a case in which the husband had filed divorce proceedings in Patiala House Court and his wife had filed maintenance proceedings and filed for the custody of the children. Both of them came together in the pre-Lok Adalat sitting and both decided that they would live together. So when both of them came before the Lok Adalat court, I asked them, and they said that they had decided to live together happily. The wife said that I do not want maintenance because we are living together very happily.”

The Chief Justice said the idea of Lok Adalat is to settle small cases. “People do not realize how many small cases come to the Supreme Court. We choose cases like service, labour disputes, land acquisition, and motor accident claim cases to hear in the Lok Adalat.”

“The presence of bar members as part of the Lok Adalat panel along with judges has given the right message to the entire society that we are united in our efforts to do justice, especially to the citizens involved in these small cases,” Chief Justice Chandrachud said. The Chief Justice hopes that Lok Adalat becomes institutionalised in the Supreme Court in the future. 

Speaking to NDTV, Mr Sibal said, “For the first time, I was not on the side of the bar but on the side of the bench. It is a matter of luck that he got a chance to share the bench with judges like this.”