Judges still use snail mail, blames law for delay in justice

NEW DELHI: The justice delivery system in India is still moving at a snail’s pace.

The Supreme Court’s e-committee was taken aback when lower court judges from several states told them that they continue to send summonses only through process servers delivery by hand through baildar (court staff) and not emails, couriers or even the government’s reliable speed post service, as mandated by a 2002 amendment in the Civil Procedure Code.

Judges of the subordinate courts expressed their inability to use the modern mode of communication for lack of required amendments in the respective high court rules, which still specify that summonses be delivered only through process servers.

The issue came up for discussion recently at a workshop organised by the e-committee of the apex court on the implementation of the e-courts project across India.

The workshop was attended by judges of subordinate courts, registrars of all the high courts and senior law ministry officials, among others.

Senior SC judge Justice Madan B Lokur, the head of the e-committee, reminded the lower court judges and the registrars of the high courts about the 2002 amendment.

A source said, the lower court judges, however, expressed their inability to adopt the modern practices since many high courts had not amended their rules in line with the changes carried out in the CPC.

Existing high court rules only permit them to use process servers', the junior judges pointed out to Justice Lokur who asked the registrars of the HCs to carry out the required update.

In addition to the use of modern communication tools for delivery of summonses, there is also a move to update litigants, advocates and other stakeholders through SMS and email about the progress of the case and the next date of hearing or the delivery of judgment.

Furthermore, phase-II of the e-courts project also envisages equipping court staff with a hand-held GPS camera enabled PDA — palmtops or personal digital assistants instruments.

At the point of delivery of summonses, the PDA will track time and location of the court officials.

This recorded data will simultaneously be available online, reducing the scope of any misgivings that summonses were not delivered.

The government is also in the process of developing a mobile app through which such services will be provided.

"It is proposed to prepare mobile phone applications on various mobile operating system platforms to make available information regarding latest judgments delivered by the SC and the high courts, case status, and other information as may be required by lawyers and litigants," the ecourt proposal states.