Mysore/Mysuru: As many as 29 warring couples were reunited at the fourth and last Lok Adalat of the year organised by Mysuru District Legal Services Authority (DLSA)  in Courts of the city and across the district yesterday.

Speaking to presspersons after the Lok Adalat yesterday evening, Principal District and Sessions Court Judge M.L. Raghunath said that 29 estranged couples, who had filed divorce suits, pledged for reunion at the Lok Adalat. In another family dispute case, in which the relatives of the dead parents of a 13-year-old boy had been warring over his custody, the Lok Adalat amicably settled the issue by declaring that both the sides can equally share taking care of the boy through mutual understanding and trust.

Pointing out that over 3,500 out of 20,800 pre-litigation and criminal compoundable cases that had come up before Lok Adalat were resolved, Judge Raghunath said that traffic violators paid a total fine of Rs. 77,42,100 in 16,746 cases. Likewise, 246 cases pertaining to Bank recovery were settled with a total collection of Rs. 1,85,42,722; A total of Rs. 1,51,942 was collected in respect of 62 pending BSNL bills and Rs. 4,25,50,053 has been collected in 37,762 cases of dispute over water bills that were due to the MCC. He further said that a total of 64,672 cases have been amicably settled with mutual agreement collectively from all the four Lok Adalats held this year in the district. Also, a total of Rs. 81,50,20,722 was announced as relief in different cases or litigations concerning land acquisition, property suits, money recovery, labour issues and other civil disputes, he added.

Senior Civil Judge and DLSA Member-Secretary Devaraj Bhute, Judges Velakode, Rudolf Periera, Girish Bhat and Ramesh, Mysore Bar Association President M. Mahadevaswamy and others were present.