Mysore/Mysuru: The Mega Lok Adalat organised under the joint aegis of Karnataka Legal Services Authority (KLSA), District Legal Services Authority (DLSA), Mysuru, District Judiciary and Mysore Bar Association, continued for the second day this afternoon in the District Courts Complex.

The Karnataka High Court had granted permission for Mysuru District Court to hold the Lok Adalat for the second day today for the benefit of litigants who could not attend on Saturday in view of the weekend curfew enforced by the authorities to check the spread of the deadly  COVID-19 pandemic.

On the first day on Saturday, as many as 21 belligerent couples who had sought divorce, re-united at the Mega Lok Adalat. After the matrimonial disputes were settled, the couples agreed to continue to live together again. 

Addressing a press meet at the new District Courts Complex at Malalavadi in Jayanagar on Satruday evening, Principal  District and Sessions Court Judge M.L. Raghunath said that he was happy that the Lok Adalat succeeded in re-uniting 21 couples, including the couple who had got married over three decades ago.

The Judge further said that it was the first time in his 25 years service as a Judge that he could see such a couple who had got divorced after leading life together for long, had been united.

Pointing out that 18,692 compoundable cases, including 159 pre-litigation cases has come up before the Mega Lok Adalat, Judge Raghunath said that the Adalat has ordered a collective relief of Rs. 59.36 crore which were settled in the Lok Adalat till now. 

Noting that 58 cases relating to displaced farmers of Kabini Dam who had sought compensation has been settled with the concerned authorities agreeing to pay a collective compensation of Rs. 4.5 crore, he said that a 35-year-old Civil suit, which did not see an end even in High Court and Supreme Court too is expected to be settled in this Lok Adalat.

Family Court Principal Judge Patil Nagalinganagouda, Second Family Court Judge H.M. Virupakshaiah, First Additional District and Sessions Judge Saraswathi V. Kosandar, District Judge P. Srinivas, Senior Civil Judge Devaraj Bhute, who is also DLSA Member-Secretary, Mysore Bar Association President Anand Kumar, Secretary Shivanna and others were present.

The most notable among the estranged couples who got re-united at the Mega Lok Adalat, was a middle aged couple from Jyothinagar who had split in 2018, nearly three decades after they were married for nearly three decades. The couple, Mara and Geetha, who got married in 1989, had sought divorce due to domestic differences five years ago and got it in 2018, when the husband was ordered  by the Family Court to pay a monthly alimony of Rs. 3,000 to his divorced wife. But as her husband  of late failed to pay the ordered alimony, the woman moved the Court again.

Judge H.M. Virupakshaiah of the Second Family Court, who had heard the case earlier, succeeded in re-uniting the estranged couple after convincing both of them. 

After they were re-united, the couple symbolically exchanged garlands and left the Court together in a motorcycle, it is learnt.