RAJ KUMAR
Ranchi, July 13: The online e-Court Fee System is yet to become popular among advocate clerks as physical judicial stamps of lower denomination go missing in the Jharkhand High Court.
“Judicial stamp of Rs 10 denomination has been missing from the Ranchi market for the last one year while the same of Rs 5 denomination and Rs 2 is missing for the last three months. I used a stamp of Re 1 denomination and due to my counting mistake I could paste a stamp of Rs 99 while the stamp of Rs 100 was required as court fee. As the stamp reporting section detected the mistake, it pointed out defects and thus listing of the case got delayed,” an advocate clerk was heard explaining to a client angry over delay in listing his case for hearing.
When the client asked why he did not use the e-Court Fee System, the advocate clerk expressed his inability saying he was not comfortable with the system.
“For using the e- Court Fee System, I am supposed to keep on standing in queue at the Common Service Centre for a long time and pay Rs 20 extra as service charge irrespective of the Judicial Stamp charge. Though money has no constraints, devoting time standing in the queue during duty hours causes problems,” the advocate clerk, facing the wrath of the client, said.
Another advocate clerk supported his colleague and said that he too faced problems in getting a Judicial Stamp of Rs 1 and Rs 20 denomination on Tuesday. On non-use of e-Court Fee System, he said: “During court hour devoting time in queue means losing earning opportunity as this is time during which advocates and their clients come with different types of court related works and pay a good amount for the service.”
Secretary of Adhivakta Lipik Sangh R.N.Dwivedi confirmed the situation saying several attempts were made to end the crisis but all the attempts failed.
“Very few advocate clerks are comfortable with the e-Court Fee System as they are not well conversant with the system due to involvement of information technology. Many do not have required equipment for the same. Apart from this, they also do not like to pay Rs 20 extra as many times it becomes difficult for them to explain to their client how come they charged Rs 21 for the court fee when stamp of only Re 1. Time is another factor. If the fee is high then alright but in case the court fee is very less, they feel it is a misuse of time in standing in the long queue and most of the time they do not have to pay a higher amount as court fee,” he said.
Asked why something is not done to train advocate clerks to use e-Judicial Stamp, Dwivedi said its requirement was not felt.
“If there had been no alternative, it could have been done but when the alternative is available and those involved in business of land and property dealing are getting physical Judicial Stamps easily unlike poor advocate clerks,” Dwivedi said.
The e-Court Fee system is an internet based application that gives a person the convenience of paying court fees without hassles involved in obtaining physical Judicial Stamps. The system is secure and reliable. It involves three simple steps including one-time registration, online payment and receipt generation.
Registration is a process under which a client makes a one-time registration which can be used across all Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL) online products available for that State. Under Online payment, besides offering the facility for single transactions, clients will also be able to make a one-time payment to be maintained as imprest balance and utilise the same over a period of time for generating e-court fees of various denominations.
Under receipt generation, a client will have the convenience to generate an e-Court fee receipt anytime and from anywhere via the internet without having to go through the hassles of long queues and tiresome formalities. The e-Court Fee receipt generated online can be printed on any printer and submitted as a valid proof of court fee payment in all approved courts of respective State.
