New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought response of the Centre and AAP government on a PIL seeking e-registration of documents at all sub-registrar offices in view of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Finance Ministry and Delhi government seeking their stand on the plea by a lawyer.

The court listed the matter for further hearing on July 23.

The petitioner-lawyer, D C Tuteja, has contended that due to the pandemic "the entire process of registration of documents has come to a standstill and various rights of parties have been affected equally being unable to meet their obligations under the agreements or for creating any rights in favour of their loved ones".  

Advocate Gaurav Bahl, appearing for the petitioner, told the court that physical presence of the parties can be done away with by equipping the sub-registrar offices, 22 in Delhi, with virtual portals which would allow the parties to be virtually present.

This would help save time, money, energy and would also prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.

After briefly hearing the petitioner's lawyer, the court said the issue raised was a policy decision and therefore, the other side has to be heard.

The petition has said that the present COVID-19 situation has reflected various aspects of virtual being the new normal.

"The traffic challans, the court hearings and also several offices have been working virtually with no or minimal contact and the same has proven to be very successful and has now shown the world that the benefit of technology is far reaching than it had been anticipated prior to the lockdown being announced," it has said.