Supreme Court: Awards passed by the Lok Adalat bound to be implemented through a Court Decree

The Supreme Court ruled on 28 November 2011 that awards passed by the Lok Adalat either in criminal or civil matters are bound to be implemented through a court decree if parties after reaching a compromise fail to stick to it. The court added that any award passed by the Lok Adalat is deemed to be a decree and will be executed by a court if either parties to the dispute retracts on the agreement reached before the Lok adalats.
 
A bench of justices P Sathasivam and J Chelameswar passed the judgement while allowing the appeal filed by a person named K N Govindan Kutty Menon challenging an Ernakulam civil court judgement that awards passed by the Lok Adalat cannot be enforced by courts. The Kerala High Court had upheld the civil courts judgement, following which Menon appealed in the apex court.