Postal Department of this State propose to take over task of serving all Court Summons

August 19, 2017

Bombay HC would then become the third court to do so after Delhi High Court and Odisha High Courts.

In an attempt to free the Police force from the burden of delivering Court summonses to the litigants, Dept. of Post, Maharashtra Circle, has shown readiness to take over this responsibility.

The Postal Dept. made a submission last month in this regard to Bombay HC authorities after numerous meetings with its stakeholders, a senior Postal dept. official said.

"We've expressed our readiness & preparedness to discharge this job. It's up to the honorable High Court to give us further instructions on this matter," senior official said.

If this proposal gets implemented, then the Bombay HC would become the 3rd court to do so after the Delhi High Court & Odisha High Court, he said.

Idea of delivering court summonses to litigants by the postal dept. was 1st mooted in year 2012. After this, there have been several rounds of meetings between police, court & dept. officials.

"If it gets implemented, the burden on an already stressed police force'll reduce to a great extent & free them for the duties," said the official.

Presently, only policemen are allowed to personally deliver summonses to the people concerned.

"Based on the resources & requirement, we'll give preliminary orientation to the postmasters on how to deliver the court summonses. We can also have especially designed envelops for delivering these documents," the official added.

In September 2016, the Bombay High Court, had asked the state govt. to amend laws to provide for serving warrants & summonses to accused & witnesses through some registered post in addition to the existing procedure followed by the police.

This ruling delivered while hearing a PIL, sought to expedite the process of delivering the pending summonses & warrants in the cheque bounce cases.