COMMON ORDER:

(Per Hon’ble Sri Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy)

These two Writ Petitions are filed challenging the awards passed by the Permanent Lok Adalat.

2. Heard learned counsel for the petitioners, learned Standing Counsel for Raithu Sadhikarika Samstha and Sri S.Lakshmi Narayana Reddy, learned Standing Counsel for the Andhra Pradesh State Legal Services Authority.

3. The impugned awards passed by Permanent Lok Adalat are challenged mainly on the twin grounds that the Permanent Lok Adalat is not competent and had no jurisdiction to pass the impugned awards, as banking services are not included within the purview of the public utility services, as contemplated under Section 22A of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 (hereinafter referred as ‘the Act’ for short) and that the impugned awards are passed without making an effort for conciliation which is a mandatory requirement under clauses (7) and (8) of Section 22C of the Act. 4. When the Writ Petitions came up for hearing, both the learned counsel for the petitioner and also learned counsel for the respondents would submit that these are covered matters in view of the earlier common order passed by this Court in a batch