In its forward march towards making the justice delivery system paperless and hassle-free, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday added another feather to its cap by launching the e-court fee system at its premises to cut off the difficulty and delay in filing cases.
This has been made possible by the Delhi Government and the Computer Committee of the High Court headed by Justice B. D. Ahmed.
The Committee had in 2008 launched a project in cooperation with the State Government to make the High Court an electronic court to reduce the use of paper and thereby making filing and disposal of cases easy.
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Justice Ahmed in his address at the launch ceremony said that the Committee would not rest on this laurel. In the next few months, lawyers and litigants would not be required to visit the Court premises to make payment for court fees stamps at the counter, he said, adding that the facility would be made available online so that litigants or lawyers could purchase them from anywhere and at any time.
Further, there are also plans to introduce the system in the Capital’s district courts. The Computer Committee was working on it along with the Government.
In her address, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said she would extend full cooperation to the High Court to make the justice delivery system e-technology oriented and easier as it was her Government’s agenda to maximise the use of computer in administration.
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Delhi High Court Chief Justice D. Murugesan in his address was all praise for the Government’s cooperation for the e-payment facility. He said the system was fully secure as it could not be tampered with or counterfeited.
The system is flawlessly customer-friendly. The moment a litigant or a lawyer would make a payment for court fee, he would be immediately issued a receipt with a unique number and a bar code which could be verified at the registry at the time of filing of petitions. Once the verification is done, the number would get locked, eliminating even a remote possibility of its reuse.
Further, litigants or lawyers can make payment for court fees in cash or through cheque or pay order or draft. They could also use RTGS facility to make payment once the system goes online.
The litigants and lawyers would get a great relief as earlier at times they had to wait for several days or pay extra money to get court fee stamps of the required denominations due to their unavailability.
Earlier, Ms. Dikshit and Justice Murugesan formally inaugurated the system by getting a printout of a makeshift court fee receipt.