National Lok Adalat can't direct further probe: Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, February 7

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has set aside an order passed by the National Lok Adalat after ruling that it did not have the jurisdiction to direct further investigation in a criminal case. The High Court made it clear that the Lok Adalat would be competent to pass only an order based on a compromise among the parties.

The matter was placed before Justice Gurvinder Singh Gill of the High Court after an accused filed a petition for quashing an FIR registered in September 2017 at the Zirakpur police station for criminal breach of trust and cheating under Sections 406 and 420 of the IPC. Directions were also sought for setting aside an order dated December 11, 2021, passed by the Dera Bassi National Lok Adalat, vide which it did not accept the cancellation report and ordered further investigation in the matter.

Justice Gill’s Bench was told that the matter was investigated by the police and some signatures in dispute were sent for examination to a forensic science laboratory. Pursuant to conclusion of the investigation, a cancellation report was filed by the police before the area magistrate. The matter was then put up before the National Lok Adalat, which passed the impugned order.

After examining the submissions raised on the petitioner’s behalf and hearing rival contentions, Justice Gill asserted that the court would not like to express anything on the veracity of the allegations since the investigation had already concluded.

However, the court found that the impugned order could not sustain as it was absolutely ‘non-speaking’ and had, in fact, been passed in the National Lok Adalat, which “would not have any jurisdiction to pass a judicial order of this nature”.

Justice Gill added that the order in question was signed by the Dera Bassi National Lok Adalat presiding officer and two members. “The Lok Adalat could have jurisdiction in case any order was to be passed on the basis of a compromise. But once the complainant had expressed his reservations and had specifically recorded that he is not satisfied with the investigation, the proper course for the Lok Adalat would have been to send the matter back to the court concerned i.e. the illaqa magistrate for passing appropriate orders, instead of passing an order itself for further investigation”.

Before parting with the case, Justice Gill remanded the matter back to the area magistrate with a direction to consider the cancellation report afresh and to pass an appropriate order deemed fit in the facts and circumstances of the case.