Devan Ramachandran, J.

1. If there ever be a Book on Lawyers' Truths, the first aphoristic percept that would occupy it is that a bad settlement is better than a good law suit. This truism is well recognised because litigation is expensive, time consuming and unpredictable. However, many a time, this aphorism has been pushed well beyond its intent leading to a settle-at-all-costs mentality without being cognizant of the forensic worth or value of such settlement.

2. The bane of thoughtless and ill drafted settlements is that the cure became worse than the malady, ironically then causing even more litigation. When settlements couched on illogical, unenforceable, impractical and sometimes even dissolute terms are brought to the notice of Courts, it become difficult to be blind to it since the final outcome of any judicial process in justice and everything else is only a cornolony effort to approximate the result of a well functioning judicial system.

3. The situation presented in this case is graphically illustrative of what I have said above.

4. The petitioner assails Ext.P7, which is an award passed in a Lok Adalath conducted by the Kollam Taluk Legal Services Committee. This