https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=195388 Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 gives every Lok Adalat award the status of a deemed decree of a civil court, and that legal fiction applies equally to cases referred by criminal courts. Where a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is settled before the Lok Adalat and an award is passed on compromise, the award attains finality and binding force under Section 21(2). It is therefore executable as a civil court decree, and its enforceability cannot be denied merely because the reference originated from a criminal complaint. en-us Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0530 Mon, 14 May 2018 11:30:00 +0530 TaxTMI RSS Generator https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=195388 Section 21 of the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 gives every Lok Adalat award the status of a deemed decree of a civil court, and that legal fiction applies equally to cases referred by criminal courts. Where a complaint under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act is settled before the Lok Adalat and an award is passed on compromise, the award attains finality and binding force under Section 21(2). It is therefore executable as a civil court decree, and its enforceability cannot be denied merely because the reference originated from a criminal complaint. Case-Laws Indian Laws Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0530 https://www.taxtmi.com/caselaws?id=195388