Sri Samrat Samanta & Ors vs Sri Somesh Dhara & Ors on 5 April, 2024
In Kishan Rao vs. Bidar District Legal Services Authority & Ors.
reported in AIR 2001 Karn. 407 it is held that while passing an award it is
an ardent duty of the Lok Adalat to see that all the parties to the suits are
entering into a settlement and/or compromise. What is sine qua non is that
the award of the Lok Adalat binds the signatories or the parties to the
proceedings and cannot bind the non-party who are neither the signatories
nor arraigned as a party in the suit. There is no quarrel to the proposition of
law that e ven a decree passed by the Civil Court on contest after having
attained a finality is binding on the parties to the said suit. We do not find
any fetter in law in seeking a declaration by a stranger to the said suit that
the said decree passed by Civil Court even on contest is binding on them.
Taking a clue that the suit seeking declaration that the decree of the Civil
Court is not binding on a non-party being maintainable, we do not find any
fetter in seeking such declaration in relation to an award passed by the Civil
Court. The only fetter which is put in the above-noted reports is that the
signatory or the party to the compromise or settlement arrived between
them which culminated into an award of the Lok Adalat cannot take
recourse to any other forum except to approach the High Court under
Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution. We then do not find any substance
in the point raised by the appellant that the suit is not maintainable.