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Judgment
Amareshwar Sahay, J.—Heard the parties.
The grievance of the petitioner is that the impugned order dated 21.12.2009, as contained in Annexure-2, has been passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat, Jamshedpur, whereby the said Permanent Lok Adalat without having any jurisdiction, has entered into the disputes between the parties and after adjudicating the disputes has illegally passed an Award, awarding a claim of Rs. 3,87,568/- against the petitioner.
In a series of decision of this Court, it has been held that a Permanent Lok Adalat has the role only as a Conciliator and not of adjudicator and it has consistently been held by this Court that the duty of the Permanent Lok Adalat is to bring the parties to a settlement and to pass award instead of adjudicating a dispute and pass an award without taking notice of the Act and the Rules under which claim was entertainable. The Permanent Lok Adalat has no jurisdiction to directly invoke the provisions of Sub-section (8) of Section 22C and decide the dispute on merit against the will of the parties. Reference may be made to the case of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited v. The State of Jharkhand and Anr. reported in 2008 (3) JLJR 513.
In the present case, I find that the Permanent Lok Adalat has decided and adjudicated the dispute between the parties and has passed the Award on contest which is beyond its jurisdiction.
Accordingly, the impugned order dated 21.12.2009, as contained in Annexure-2, passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat, Jamshedpur in P.L.A. Case No. 448/2008, is hereby set aside.
It is made clear that I have not entered into the merits of the claim of the parties. The parties would be at liberty to approach the appropriate forum available under the law for redressal of their grievances.