MUMBAI, March 7: Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court M B Shah today called upon parties involved in litigation to take their pending cases to the various Loknyayalayas set up in different magistrate courts to ensure that they were settled as quickly as possible.Inaugurating the Loknyayalaya at the Esplanade court, Justice Shah pressed for the amicable settlement of all disputes, saying litigation took up a lot of time, energy and money. He said the advocate played an important role in a Loknyayalaya as his word would be acceptable to the complainants as well as the defendants (accused).Also present at the function were Justice Ashok Agarwal, senior administrative judge of the Bombay High Court, and Chief Metropolitan Magistrate M N Gilani.Later, the six panels set up in the Esplanade court got down to the task of hearing and deciding the various cases - primarily summons and police cases pending in the 8th, 23rd, 28th and 37th courts. In all, 186 cases were heard today. The majority of the casesto be heard by the Loknyayalayas are cases related to dishonouring of cheques, assaults, violation of copyrights, defamation, traffic offences and criminal intimidation.President of the Bombay Metropolitan Magistrate's Courts Bar Association (BMMCBA) Qureshi M Aftab said the Loknyayalaya was set up so that the regular court could concentrate on important cases. The basic idea of setting up a Loknyayalaya is to dispose of large number of cases in a short time, he pointed out.Aftab said that the panel would decide the outcome of the case which would then go to the concerned magistrate for his signature. The Loknyayalaya will hold its sittings once in two or three months depending on the number of pending cases, he added.This is the third Loknayalaya to be set up in the city metropolitan magistrates court. Earlier, sittings of the Loknyayalaya were conducted in the Girgaum court on February 21 and at the Mazagaon court on February 22. In both courts, over 200 cases were heard of which 50 percent weresettled.
