Sri Vijaya Puram, Sept. 14: The National Lok Adalat held across Andaman and Nicobar Islands on 12 September settled bank, BSNL and Negotiable Instruments Act disputes while disposing of hundreds of criminal and petty cases and realising fines and settlements at multiple centres.
The District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Andaman and Nicobar Islands, conducted the exercise at the District Court Building in Port Blair and the Sub-Divisional Court Complexes at Mayabunder and Diglipur, with Campbell Bay proceedings held through virtual mode.
At Port Blair, 35 pre-litigation bank recovery cases were settled for Rs 74.65 lakh against an involved amount of Rs 1.13 crore, with Rs 3.67 lakh recovered on the spot. One pre-litigation BSNL recovery case involving Rs 14,229 was settled for Rs 6,000, which was also realised immediately. A Negotiable Instruments Act case involving Rs 4,09,505 was settled for Rs 2.50 lakh.
The Port Blair benches also disposed of 587 criminal cases, generating Rs 8.65 lakh in fines. Through virtual proceedings for Campbell Bay, 28 Motor Vehicles Act cases were disposed of, with Rs 1.30 lakh collected as fines.
At Mayabunder, 24 pre-litigation bank recovery cases were settled for Rs 44.61 lakh against an involved amount of Rs 68.75 lakh, while Rs 2.38 lakh was realised on the spot. Four BSNL recovery cases involving Rs 7,389 were settled for Rs 6,062, with the amount recovered immediately. Another 74 petty cases were disposed of, resulting in Rs 87,550 in fines.
At Diglipur, 29 BSNL recovery cases involving Rs 65,612 were settled for Rs 47,100, which was realised on the spot. The bench also disposed of 34 criminal cases and collected Rs 1.91 lakh in fines.
The DLSA constituted three benches at Port Blair and one each at Mayabunder and Diglipur. The Port Blair benches were presided over by Umesh Singh, Additional District and Sessions Judge; Jayanta Mukherjee, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Second Court; and Sayatan Misra, Judicial Magistrate First Class, Additional Court.
The Mayabunder bench was presided over by Pabitra Sen, Chief Judicial Magistrate (in-charge), while Rajib Sarkar, Judicial Magistrate First Class, presided over the Diglipur bench. Advocates, social workers and other members assisted the respective benches.
The Port Blair programme was arranged by Samrat Roy, Chief Judicial Magistrate-cum-Secretary, DLSA, under the supervision of Subhra Bandyopadhyay, District and Sessions Judge-cum-Chairman, DLSA. Proceedings at Mayabunder and Diglipur were conducted under Pabitra Sen’s supervision and guidance.
