The week has been organised by the District Service Legal Authority and the Lions Club of Surat. Speaking on the occasion, District judge A A Qureshi, Collector R M Shah, municipal and police authorities and voluntary organisations felt that though the Lok Adalat system introduced as part of the Legal Authority Services Act had proved beneficial, changes needed to be made in the existing laws and outdated laws needed to be scrapped.

The district collector called for the formation of a judicial co-ordination committee, which could expedite cases if not entirely solve them.

``It is true that people have suffered because of a number of factors but a beginning should be made,'' he felt.

Shah pointed out that separating the judiciary and the executive had not yielded positive results with sub-judice cases invariably proving to be a bottleneck in any attempt to solve them. ``There is so much of muddamaal lying rotting in government departments for years as they become police cases,'' he regretted. ``It's like the blind men feeling different parts of an elephant,'' he said. About 65,000 cases, 60 per cent of which are against the government, were lying pending in the district courts two years ago, when the lok adalats came into force.

Municipal Commissioner S Jagadeesan while acknowledging that the legal week, road safety week, among others were held because these were basically lacking, said the law needed both simplification and scrapping. ``What we need to do is follow the intended objective and not just the text,'' he said, adding officials needed legal education more than the common man.

The civic chief said in western countries the accused admitted to the crime but contended that it was not intended, thus attracting less punishment. In India, we are told not to admit the crime in the first place and thus cases keep piling on, he observed.

Till this year, the civic body had 38,000 cases pending, of which 7000 related to shops and establishments and 5000 concerning nuisance have been disposed off. The commissioner said tax-related and food and adulteration cases would not be disposed off hastily as they dealt with public safety and revenue.

District Judge A A Qureshi, drawing a positive picture of the scene, said the district court was honoured with a state government medal for disposing off the maximum number of cases by Lok Adalats. ``At least now, no citizen can say that he was denied justice because of a lack of financial resources,'' Qureshi said, adding currently, 20,000 cases were pending in the district court.