Mumbai: In a bid to free the police force of the burden of delivering court summonses to litigants, the Department of Post, Maharashtra Circle, has shown readiness to take over the responsibility.
The State postal department made a submission in this regard to the Bombay High Court last month after several rounds of meetings with all stakeholders, a senior DoP official said. “We have expressed our readiness and preparedness to discharge this job (of delivering court summonses). It is up to the High Court to give us further instructions in the matter.” If implemented, the Bombay HC would become the third court to do so after the Delhi and Odisha High Courts, he said.
Presently, only policemen are allowed to personally deliver summonses to the people named in them. The proposal to deliver court summonses to litigants through the postal department was first mooted in 2012. After this, there were several rounds of meetings between the police, court and DoP officials.
“If it gets implemented, the burden on an already stressed police force will reduce to a great extent and free them up for policing duties. Based on the requirement and resources, we will give preliminary orientation to postmasters. We can also come up with specially designed envelopes to deliver the summonses,” the official added.
In September last year, the Bombay HC had asked the State government to amend laws to provide for serving warrants and summonses to accused and witnesses through registered post, in addition to the existing procedure. The ruling, delivered while hearing a PIL, sought to expedite the process of delivering pending summonses and warrants in cheque bounce cases.