Demonstrating once again that it is keen on embracing technology, the Madras High Court has permitted a couple facing a criminal case under the Emigration Act of 1983 to travel to Oman after giving an undertaking to accept summons through e-mail and fly down to India as and when required by the trial court.
Justice C.T. Selvam granted the permission while allowing a criminal revision petition preferred by Premkumar Thangadurai and his wife Hanna Vanitha Kumari Joseph.
The Central Crime Branch (CCB) police here had booked a case against them on charges of recruiting staff for their restaurant in Oman without proper authorisation.
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Though the police were yet to complete investigation in the case, the couple made an application before a judicial magistrate at Tambaram here seeking permission to travel to Oman to manage their business there.
The Magistrate permitted them to go abroad with a rider that they should return before a particular date.
Aggrieved over such a condition imposed by the lower court, the couple moved the present revision petition urging the High Court to set aside the restrictions imposed on the period of their stay in Oman. Stating that they would have to travel abroad frequently, the petitioners said such restrictions would cause severe hardship to them.
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During the course of the arguments, senior counsel R. Shunmugasundaram, representing the petitioners, suggested that the petitioners could be permitted to travel abroad, without any restrictions on the period of their stay, after obtaining their e-mail addresses and directing the trial court to issue summons to them through e-mail.
Accepting the suggestion, the judge directed the couple to swear an affidavit stating that they were willing to accept receipt of soft copies of the summons through e-mail and appear before the trial court.
They also provided their parents’ residential address in Chennai and stated that hard copies could be served over there.
After recording the contents of their affidavit, the judge set aside the restrictions imposed by the lower court and directed it to issue summons to the petitioners through e-mail after the police file a final report in the criminal case.
Setting a trend
This is the second such instance of the High Court coming forward to adapt to technological advancements.
In the first instance in November 2015, when video conferencing facility was not available between the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai and its Bench in Madurai, the court had used video chatting software Skype to hear a case.
Justice V. Ramasubramanian, the then administrative judge of the Madurai Bench and now a judge of the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad, had requested Justice S. Vaidyanathan to hear an urgent matrimonial case filed in the Madurai Bench from the latter’s residence in Chennai through Skype.
Then, the order dictated by the judge here was e-mailed to Madurai and a certified copy was issued over there on the same day.