Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T03:21:15.935Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Conflict and Compromise: The Politics of Lok Adalats in Varanasi District

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Researchers use a variety of approaches in analyzing dispute processing outside of adversarial court proceedings. Some emphasize disputant decisionmaking, while others, who generally take a more critical view of these alternatives, approach dispute processing alternatives from the perspective of the state and its interests. In this article I use a third approach which focuses on the political behavior of actors involved in the organization, administration, and staffing of these alternative mechanisms. The approach is applied to a relatively new alternative to adjudication in the courts in India, the lok adalat.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © 1991 by The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

Financial support for this research was provided by a Fulbright-Hays Fellowship. Among those who deserve special mention for their assistance at various stages of this project are Professors Lloyd and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Professor David Gilmartin.

References

References

ABEL, Richard L. (ed.) (1982) “The Contradictions of Informal Justice,” in Abel, R. L. (ed.), 1 The Politics of Informal Justice. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
ABEL, Richard L. (ed.) (1982b) 1 The Politics of Informal Justice. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
AGRAWALA, S. K. (1985) Public Interest Litigation in India. Bombay: N. M. Tripathi.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra (1976) “From Takrar to Karar: The Lok Adalat at Rangpur—A Preliminary Study,” 10 Journal of Constitutional and Parliamentary Studies 52.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra (1979–80) “Taking Suffering Seriously, Social Action Litigation in the Supreme Court of India,” 8–9 Delhi Law Review 91.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra (1982) The Crisis of the Indian Legal System. New Delhi: Vikas Publishing House.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra (1985) Courage, Craft and Contention: The Indian Supreme Court in the Eighties. Bombay: N. M. Tripathi.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra (1986) Towards a Sociology of Indian Law. New Delhi: Satvahan Publications.Google Scholar
BAXI, Upendra, and Marc, GALANTER (1979) “Panchayat Justice: An Indian Experiment in Legal Justice,” in Cappelletti, M. and Garth, B. (eds.), 3 Access to Justice. Milan: Giuffre; Alphen aan den Rijn: Sijthoff & Noordhoff.Google Scholar
BLUMBERG, Abraham (1967) Criminal Justice. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.Google Scholar
CAIN, Maureen, and Kalman, KULCSAR (1981–82) “Thinking Disputes: An Essay in the Origins of the Dispute Industry,” 16 Law & Society Review 375.Google Scholar
COHN, Bernard (1959–60) “Some Notes on Law and Change in North India,” 8 Economic Development and Cultural Change 79.Google Scholar
COHN, Bernard (1965) “Anthropological Notes on Disputes and Law in India,” 67 American Anthropologist 82.Google Scholar
CROZIER, Michel (1964) The Bureaucratic Phenomenon. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
DAHL, Robert (1957) “Concept of Power,” 2 Behavioral Science 201.Google Scholar
EISENSTEIN, James, and Herbert, JACOB (1977) Felony Justice: An Organizational Analysis of Criminal Courts. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
EISENSTEIN, James, FLEMMING, Roy B., and Peter F., NARDULLI (1988) The Contours of Justice: Communities and Their Courts. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
ERLANGER, Howard S., Elizabeth, CHAMBLISS, and Marygold S., MELLI (1987) “Participation and Flexibility in Informal Processes: Cautions from the Divorce Court,” 21 Law & Society Review 585.Google Scholar
FELSTINER, William L. F., and Lynne A., WILLIAMS (1982) “Community Mediation in Dorchester, Massachusetts,” in Tomasic, R. and Feeley, M. M. (eds.), Neighborhood Justice: Assessment of an Emerging Idea. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1968–69) “The Study of the Indian Legal Profession,” 3 Law & Society Review 201.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Review 95.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1989) Law and Society in Modern India. Bombay: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
GOLDBERG, Stephen B., GREEN, Eric D., and Frank E. A., SANDER (1985) Dispute Resolution. Boston: Little, Brown.Google Scholar
GOLDBERG, Stephen B., GREEN, Eric D., and Frank E. A., SANDER (1986) “ADR Problems and Prospects: Looking to the Future,” 69 Judicature 291.Google Scholar
GREATBATCH, David, and Robert, DINGWALL (1989) “Selective Facilitation: Some Preliminary Observations on a Strategy Used by Divorce Mediators,” 23 Law & Society Review 613.Google Scholar
GUJARAT STATE (1971) Report of the Legal Aid Committee. Gandhinagar: Government Central Press.Google Scholar
GUPTESWAR, K. (1988) “The Statutory Lok Adalat: Its Structure and Role,” 30 Journal of the Indian Law Institute 174.Google Scholar
HARRINGTON, Christine B. (1985) Shadow Justice: The Ideology and Institutionalization of Alternatives to Court. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
HAYDEN, Robert M. (1983) “Excommunication as Everyday Event and Ultimate Sanction: The Nature of Suspension from an Indian Caste,” 42 Journal of Asian Studies 291.Google Scholar
HAYDEN, Robert M. (1986) “Popular Use of Yugoslav Labor Courts and the Contradiction of Social Courts,” 20 Law & Society Review 229.Google Scholar
HOFRICHTER, Richard (1987) Neighborhood Justice in Capitalist Society. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
INDIA (1981a) Census of India 1981, Primary Census Abstract, Uttar Pradesh, Part IIB.Google Scholar
INDIA (1981b) Census of India 1981, Town Directory, Uttar Pradesh, Part X-A.Google Scholar
KASSEBAUM, Gene (1989) “ADR in India: The Lok Adalat as an Alternative to Court Litigation of Personal Injury and Criminal Cases in South India,” Working Paper Series, Program on Conflict Resolution, University of Hawaii at Manoa.Google Scholar
KIDDER, Robert (1973) “Courts and Conflict in an Indian City: A Study in Legal Impact,” 11 Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies 121.Google Scholar
KIDDER, Robert (1974) “Formal Litigation and Professional Insecurity: Legal Entrepreneurship in South India,” 9 Law & Society Review 11.Google Scholar
KIDDER, Robert (1980–81) “The End of the Road? Problems in the Analysis of Disputes,” 15 Law & Society Review 717.Google Scholar
KRISHNAN, P. G. (1981) “The Litigant, the Legal Profession and the Judicial Process,” 8 Journal of the Indian Bar Council 637.Google Scholar
KUMAR, Ashok (1990) “Lok Adalat in Allahabad,” 1990 Supreme Court Journal 50.Google Scholar
KUSHAWAHA, R. (1977) The Working of Nyaya Panchayats in India. New Delhi: Young Asia Publications.Google Scholar
LAW COMMISSION OF INDIA (1956) 14th Report. New Delhi: Ministry of Law.Google Scholar
LEGAL AID UNIT (N.S.S.) CAMPUS LAW CENTRE (1985) “Lok Adalat in Delhi: A Report from a Legal Education Perspective,” 12 Indian Bar Review 415.Google Scholar
LEMPERT, Richard (1989) “The Dynamics of Informal Procedure: The Case of a Public Housing Eviction Board,” 23 Law & Society Review 347.Google Scholar
McEWEN, Craig A., and Richard J., MAIMAN (1981) “Small Claims Mediation in Maine: An Empirical Assessment,” 33 Maine Law Review 237.Google Scholar
McEWEN, Craig A., and Richard J., MAIMAN (1984) “Mediation in Small Claims Court: Achieving Compliance Through Consent,” 18 Law & Society Review 11.Google Scholar
MENON, N. R. Madhava (1985) “Justice sans Lawyers: Some Indian Experiments,” 12 Indian Bar Review 446.Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle (1979) “Going to Court: Strategies on Dispute Management in an American Urban Neighborhood,” 13 Law & Society Review 891.Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle (1982) “The Social Organization of Mediation in Nonindustrial Societies: Implications for Informal Community Justice in America,” in Abel, R. L. (ed.), 2 The Politics of Informal Justice. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle (1990) Getting Justice and Getting Even. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
MERRY, Sally Engle, and Susan S., SILBEY (1984) “What Do Plaintiffs Want? Reexaming the Concept of Dispute,” 9 Justice System Journal 151.Google Scholar
MESCHIEVITZ, Catherine S., and Marc, GALANTER (1982) “In Search of Nyaya Panchayats: The Politics of a Moribund Institution,” in Abel, R. L. (ed.), 2 The Politics of Informal Justice. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF LAW, JUSTICE AND COMPANY AFFAIRS (1977) Report on National Juridicare: Equal Justice, Social Justice. New Delhi: Ministry of Law, Justice and Company Affairs, 1977.Google Scholar
MINISTRY OF LAW, JUSTICE AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS (1973) Report of the Expert Committee on Legal Aid: Processual Justice to the People. New Delhi: Ministry of Law, Justice and Government Affairs, 1973.Google Scholar
MOORE, Erin (1985) Conflict and Compromise: Justice in an Indian Village. Berkeley: Center for South and Southeast Asia Studies, University of California.Google Scholar
MORRISON, Charles (1972) “Munshis and Their Masters: The Organization of an Occupational Relationship in the Indian Legal System,” 31 Journal of Asian Studies 309.Google Scholar
MORRISON, Charles (1974) “Clerks and Clients: Paraprofessional Roles and Cultural Identities in Indian Litigation,” 9 Law & Society Review 39.Google Scholar
MURRAY, John S. (1987) “Lawyers and Alternative Dispute Resolution Success,” 14 Pepperdine Law Review 781.Google Scholar
NARAIN, V. A. (1959) Jonathan Duncan and Varanasi. Calcutta: K. L. Mukhopadhyay.Google Scholar
NARDULLI, Peter F. (1978) The Courtroom Elite. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co.Google Scholar
PATRIKA (1987) “Plea to Recognise Lok Adalat Work,” Patrika (Banaras), 9 March.Google Scholar
PEARSON, Jessica (1981) “Child Custody: Why Not Let the Parents Decide?” 20 Judges Journal 4.Google Scholar
PEARSON, Jessica (1982) “An Evaluation of Alternatives to Court Adjudication,” 7 Justice System Journal 420.Google Scholar
PERROW, Charles (1986) Complex Organizations. 3d ed. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
PFEFFER, Jeffrey (1981) Power in Organizations. Marshfield, Mass: Pitman Publishing.Google Scholar
PIONEER (1987a) “Lok Adalat Decides 1,000 Cases,” Pioneer (Lucknow), 31 March.Google Scholar
PIONEER (1987b) “3,000 Cases Decided at Lok Adalat,” Pioneer (Lucknow), 8 April.Google Scholar
PIONEER (1987c) “2,227 Cases Decided in Lok Adalat,” Pioneer (Lucknow) 8 April.Google Scholar
PIONEER (1987d) “Unique Case of Parallel Court,” Pioneer (Lucknow), 19 May.Google Scholar
ROSENBERG, Maurice (1980–81) “Civil Justice Research and Civil Justice Reform,” 15 Law & Society Review 473.Google Scholar
SANTOS, SANTOS Boaventura de (1982) “Law and Community: The Changing Nature of State Power in Late Capitalism,” in Abel, R. L. (ed.), 1 The Politics of Informal Justice. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
SARAT, Austin (1976) “Alternatives in Dispute Processing: Litigation in a Small Claims Court” 10 Law & Society Review 339.Google Scholar
SAXENA, Manoher Raj (1986) “Legal Aid Advice Scheme and Lok Adalat,” 73 All India Reporter 103.Google Scholar
SHARMA, Miriam (1978) The Politics of Inequality: Competition and Control in an Indian Village. Delhi: Hindustan Publishing Corp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SINHA, Chittaranjan (1971) The Indian Civil Judiciary in Making 1800–33. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal.Google Scholar
SNYDER, Frederick E. (1978) “Crime and Community Mediation—The Boston Experience: A Preliminary Report on the Dorchester Urban Court Program,” 1978 Wisconsin Law Review 737.Google Scholar
SRINIVAS, M. N. (1955) “The Social System of a Mysore Village,” in Marriot, M. (ed.), Village India. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
TIMES OF INDIA (1987) “First Lok Adalat at High Court Level Claimed,” Times of India (New Delhi), 12 Nov.Google Scholar
TINKER, Hugh (1954) The Foundations of Local Self Government in India, Pakistan and Burma. London: Athlene Press.Google Scholar
TOMASIC, Roman (1982) “Mediation as an Alternative to Adjudication: Rhetoric and Reality in the Neighborhood Justice Movement,” in Tomasic, R. and Feeley, M. M. (eds.), Neighborhood Justice: Assessment of an Emerging Idea. New York: Longman.Google Scholar
UTTAR PRADESH (1948–76) Reports on the Administration of Justice in the State of Uttar Pradesh (except 1955 and 1973). Allahabad: Superintendent, Printing and Stationary.Google Scholar
YNGVESSON, Barbara (1988) “Making Law at the Doorway: The Clerk, the Court, and the Construction of Community in a New England Town,” 22 Law & Society Review 409.Google Scholar

Cases

People's Union for Democratic Rights v. Union of India, A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 1473. S. P. Gupta v. Union of India, A.I.R. 1982 S.C. 149.Google Scholar