What a Lok Adalat is good for
Lok Adalats are organised by the legal services authorities and sit periodically, including National Lok Adalats on scheduled dates. They resolve matters by conciliation and consent, and the award they pass is executable as a decree of the civil court.
In matrimonial practice they are most useful for the surrounding money disputes: settling maintenance arrears, agreeing a permanent alimony figure, resolving return of articles, and settling cheque bounce matters that often run alongside a family dispute.
The limits
Two limits matter, and both are frequently misunderstood.
Lok Adalat, mediation, or the court?
Mediation is a facilitated negotiation with time to work through complex issues: better for custody arrangements and detailed settlements. A Lok Adalat is a single sitting suited to matters where the gap is narrow and both sides want it closed.
Where the terms are broadly agreed and only a figure separates the parties, a Lok Adalat can end a dispute in an afternoon at no cost. Where the issues are entangled (children, property, parallel criminal complaints), mediation is generally the better instrument.