PRAYAGRAJ, Oct. 10 -- The Allahabad high court has held that a Lok Adalat has no authority to dismiss a pending complaint for the want of prosecution on the mere non-appearance of a party. The court further clarified that if no compromise or settlement is reached in a case before the Lok Adalat, then it must return the case back to the court concerned. Justice Anish Kumar Gupta, while allowing the petition filed by Rajeev Jain, said that a Lok Adalat can't take up the matter on own motion, without obtaining the consent of the parties and without any intimation to the complainant. The court quashed the order passed by a Lok Adalat on December 9, 2017, dismissing a cheque-bounce complaint for non-appearance of the complainant. It also remitted the matter to the chief judicial magistrate, Etah to decide the case in accordance with law from the stage it was referred and dismissed in the Lok Adalat. The high court, in its order dated October 6, observed, "The instant case is the gravest example of such irresponsible and unauthorised action on the part of the judicial officer concerned while taking up the matter in Lok Adalat. Thus, let a warning be issued to the judicial officer concerned in this regard so that he may not repeat such occurrence in future." "When no award is made as there is no compromise and settlement, Lok Adalat is duty bound to return back the matter to the court concerned from which the matter was referred to the Lok Adalat," the court further observed. The court also observed that in the present matter, neither party had consented to refer the case to the Lok Adalat; the accused had not even been summoned and no application for reference was on record....