Validity of three awards passed by Lok Adalat under Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act 1987 on a reference made to it in three suits is under challenge.

2. The picture that emerges from the facts relating to the proceedings before the Lok Adalat, of which one of the members was a judicial officer and the other an advocate, is a mosaic of callousness, casual approach, disrespect for the statutory procedure, breach of the rules of grammar of the language and expressions which do not make any sense. It has catapulted the parties to the suits, who are members of a family, into a controversy which is worse than the one which is the cause of action for the suits.

3. The petitioner is the brother of the respondents. They and their mother, Padmavathy, had in their joint ownership 13 cents of land. In a partition that took place in 1992 five cents was allotted to the petitioner and eight cents jointly to the respondents and the mother. After the death of the mother the petitioner filed O.S. No. 2291 of 2014 in Munsiff Court, Kodungallur for partition of the right of the mother and separate allotment of his share in it. Respondents filed O.S. No. 2936 of 2014 claiming e