Case Title: Mahindra and Mahindra Financial Services Ltd & Anr v Hakim Uddin & Anr
“The objective of the Act is to bring disputes to a final settlement for which the presence of the parties and their free consent is mandatory. This Court has also carefully gone through the records of the learned Commission which were requisitioned by this Court on 11.12.2025 on the specific issue as to whether any authority was given to the learned lawyer to act and sign the compromise.”
The Gauhati High Court, while considering the validity of a settlement recorded in a National Lok Adalat, held that settlement under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 must be arrived at by the parties themselves with free consent, and that in the absence of written authority authorising counsel to sign a compromise, such settlement cannot be treated as valid. Justice Sanjay Kumar Medhi, presiding over the case, observed, that in the absence of written authority authorising counsel to sign a compromise, such settlement cannot be treated as valid.
