A Lok Adalat award is final and binding, and can only be challenged by proving the underlying agreement is invalid or illegal.

JUDGMENT :

1. These are the three connected matters clubbed together and have come up for consideration before this Court. Same are proposed to be disposed of by this common judgment.

2. In essence, the issue involved in all the three petitions revolves around authenticity of a written compromise arrived at between the petitioner-Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat (husband) and respondent No.1- Sheeraza Akhter (wife), which formed the basis for passing of the Award dated 10.02.2018 by the Lok Adalat at Pulwama.

3. Through the medium of one of the connected petition CM(M) No. 45/2019, the petitioner invokes the power of superintendence of this Court vested under Article 227 of the Constitution of India to assail the order dated 27.07.2019 (impugned herein) passed by the court of learned Sub Judge/Special Mobile Magistrate, Pulwama (Trial court) in File No. 30/Meem titled ‘Sheeraza Akhter Vs. Mushtaq Ahmad Bhat’, mainly on the ground that the said order has been passed despite the fact that the award of the Lok Adalat dated 10.02.2018, is the subject matter of challenge in a connected petition OWP No. 147/2018, wherein this Court while issuing notices to the other side has stayed the execution of non-bailable warrants issued against the petitioner, subject to depositing of Rs.25,000/- before the court below, which is stated to have been deposited, but the learned trial court is still proceeding ahead with the execution proceedings and adopting coercive measures for execution of the award dated 10.02.2018 of the Lok Adalat.

4. The petitioner herein is aggrieved of the impugned orders i.e., Lok Adalat Award dated 10.02.2018 and order dated 27.07.2019 passed in an application filed under Order 21 Rule 29 read with Section 151 CPC, in the execution proceedings titled 'Sheeraza Akhter & Ors Vs Mushtaq Ahmed Bhat’ passed by the Trial court, consequent upon which the petitioner herein has been sent to judicial custody by virtue of the order dated 04-11-2019 and released on 08-11-2019 only after an amount of Rs. 50,000/- alongwith two undertakings, sought and furnished from the next friends of the petitioner, came to be submitted before the aforesaid court while the petitioner himself was in judicial custody in Sub Jail Pulwama as against his consent and knowledge.

5. The brief facts of the case as pleaded are as under:-

5.1. That the petitioner had married with the respondent No.I and out of the said wedlock two daughters were born, who are respondents 2 and 3 herein and are presently residing with their mother-respondent No.1 at her parental home at Tumchi Nowpora, Pulwama; that soon after the said marriage, respondent No.1 without any reason voluntarily left the company and matrimonial relationship of the petitioner and started living at her parental home alongwith children i.e., respondents 2 and 3; that turning down all the requests to resume the matrimonial relations alongwith efforts of mediation through the intervention of respectable elders of the society and relatives, the respondent No.1 filed a false, frivolous and baseless petition under Section 488 CrPC before the Trial court on 28.04.2015 for grant of maintenance and the court below ordered to pay interim maintenance of an amount of Rs.2000/- in favour of respondent No.1 and Rs.1500/- each in favour of the respondents 2 and 3.

5.2. The petitioner was directed to file objections against the said maintenance petition, which he filed; that during the trial, the said petition came to be disposed of on a reference and compromised in National Lok Adalat, by virtue of order dated 12.12.2015 wherein the petitioner herein had agreed to pay an amount of Rs.3000/- as arrear of maintenance and an amount of Rs.20,000/- within a week’s time, wi