JUDGMENT

The above writ petition is filed challenging the award dated 08.07.2015 in O.P

.No.77/2014 of the Permanent Lok Adalath Ernakulam, Ernakulam. The short point raised by the petitioner in this writ petition is that the Permanent Lok Adalath decided the matter without following the procedure in Section 22C of the Legal Services Authorities Act (herein after referred to as LSA Act for short). The learned counsel relied the judgment of this Court in 2022(1) KHC 350 [Assistant Executive Engineer, KSEB, Trivandrum and another v. Consumer Vigilance Centre, Trivandrum and others]. The learned counsel submitted that the Permanent Lok Adalath proceeded with the case in total violation of the statutory provisions as per the LSA Act.

2. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel appearing for the contesting respondents.

3. The procedure to be adopted by the Permanent Lok Adalath was considered by this Court in detail in Assistant Executive Engineer's (supra) case. The relevant paragraph of the judgment in extracted hereunder:

“6. Section 22C (4) says that when statement,