Kerala HC Introduces E-Post Service As A New Option For Service Of Summons, Notices & Orders In Thiruvananthapuram [Read Notice]
The Kerala High Court has decided to introduce e-Post service rendered by the INDIA POST as a new option for service of summons/notices/orders to the respondents.
At present, as a pilot phase, delivery of articles by e- Post will be made available only in Thiruvananthapuram District and this shall be extended to all districts of Kerala at the earliest, after due notice.
Using e-Post, the articles shall be delivered on a D+1 basis, i.e., on the next day of forwarding the articles to the dashboard of the Postal Department. Advocates can opt for sending notices through e-Post, if the Court has ordered service of notice either through e-Post or Speed Post and the Advocate cannot opt for e-Post, if the service of notice is ordered to be through Registered Post.
The Court issued the following guidelines for Advocates/e-filers and Judicial Sections for using e-Post:
1. In addition to sending notices to parties by Speed Post / Registered Post, an advocate or Party in Person can now send notices through e-Post. The e-filer has the option to choose e-Post if the Court has ordered delivery of notice through (i) Speed Post or (ii) e-Post or (iii) means of delivery not specified. However, when the Court orders service through Registered Post, the e-filer cannot choose the option of e-Post. Also, if the Court orders delivery of notice through e-Post, the e-filer has to choose e-Post only. For serving notice through e-Post, the e-filer has to first apply a process memo from his dashboard. It is to be noted that process memo can be filed by (i) an advocate who holds vakalath or MOA in the pending case (e-filed or digitized) or (ii) a Party in person if his mobile number is available in the pending case. After selecting the party/parties to whom the notice is to be sent, the e-filer can proceed to the payment of process memo court fees through the Treasury interface. After successful payment of the process memo court fees, the e-filer can proceed to submit the process memo request to the Section for Step 2.
2. Section Assistant views the details submitted by the e-filer in his inbox and verifies whether the address and Pincode entered is complete. He modifies the address and Pincode if needed. In case of more than one address, for example, ‘residing at and now residing at’, ‘residing at and represented by’ etc, the Section Assistant has to edit the same and enter only one specific address to which the notice is to be sent, along with the correct Pincode. The Section Assistant verifies whether the Court has ordered service of notice through Speed Post / e-Post, or the means of delivery has not been specified. If the Court has ordered delivery of notice through Registered Post or Special Messenger, the Section Assistant rejects the application for process memo. The list of documents in the case is displayed in his dashboard, from which he can choose the set of documents required for sending notice. Based on this, the e-Post fee is calculated and displayed. The Section Assistant then sends the request back to the advocate/party in person.
3. Advocate can do the payment of the Speed Post fees (calculated based on the documents selected by the Section Assistant) through the SBI Gateway and submit it back to the Section.
4. Section Assistant receives SMS alert when a notice is received in their inbox. Section Assistant confirms that the required payment amount is paid and will add the date of posting in the memo. Then the request is forwarded to the Section Officer.
5. Section Officer verifies the correctness and digitally signs the notice using Organisational Digital Signature, after which the notice is despatched. 6. The digitally signed notice is received in the inbox of the e-Post nodal office to which the Pincode in the notice belongs.
7. Postal department downloads the notice and case file and sends the same to the recipient. The address of the recipient is also available for download. It may be noted that the articles will be delivered to the recipient’s address on a D+1 basis, that is, one day after the Section Officer despatches the documents to the dashboard of Postal Department.
8. Postal department can update the tracking ID, date of booking and date of delivery of article in the notice. Based on the delivery status, the Postal Department can update the status against each notice.
The Court has also provided screenshots in its notice, explaining the process of service of notices through e-Post.