- (1.) Heard the learned Counsel appearing for the appellant as well as Mr. Das, learned Counsel appearing for the respondent Nos.1 to 3.
(2.) The background on which the appeal came up before this Court is in brief as under : The respondent/writ petitioner borrowed about 5 lacs of amount for construction of a residential house, from the respondent Bank. Property was secured towards the loan. Subsequently, when he defaulted in payment of installments and the loan amount became over due after treating the account as non-performing asset, the respondent Bank initiated proceeding under Section 13 of the Securiti-sation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act. The Bank initiated proceeding for recovery of the amount, which came to be challenged before this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, wherein the writ petitioner alleging arbitrary and illegal action on the part of the bank in initiating proceeding under the Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act or so also sought the intervention of the Court seeking reference of the dispute between the Bank and the writ petitioner for settlement before Lok Adalat.
(3.) In that context, the learned single Judge after referring to various provisions of Legal Services Authority Act, specially Sections 19 and 20 of the Act opined that a matter which needs invocation of extraordinary jurisdiction of a High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India cannot be referred to Lok Adalat since the Legal Services Act refers to civil, criminal and revenue matters alone to the Lok Adalat. This opinion of the learned single Judge was taken exception to by High Court Legal Services Committee since matters pending before the High Court, i.e., writ petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution could not be referred to Lok Adalat. According to the appellant's stand, except the matters exempted from reference before Lok Adalat, irrespective of nature of the litigation, if they are pending before any Court of Law could be sent for settlement before the Lok Adalat.;