After his son passed away, Pooranchand, 67, was living alone at his house in Bhogal in south-east Delhi. About two months ago, his daughter-in-law allegedly barged into the house accompanied by a group of people and claimed that the property belonged to her.
“She came with 5-6 people, and they turned violent. They even slapped my father. Thankfully, someone advised us to file a case under the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act and we did it online,” Jyoti, Mr. Pooranchand’s eldest daughter, said.
The process was easy.
“We didn’t have to run around anywhere to file it. We even got a call from the District Magistrate’s office,” the 45-year-old added. Revenue courts — where cases can be filed on issues ranging from maintenance of senior citizens to property matters — in Delhi are readying to operate in hybrid mode, with both online and offline hearing.
Online filing of cases has already started at these courts and the Delhi government is in the process of conducting online hearings as well. The option to file cases online has made life easier not only for the public who do not have to visit these courts, but also for officials as monitoring has become much less cumbersome.
A person can log on to https://www.erevenuecourt.delhi.gov.in/, create a profile and file a case online. Once accepted, they will get a unique number which can be used to track the case in the future.
“Earlier, people had to physically visit the office of the Sub-Divisional Magistrate, the District Magistrate, or the Divisional Commissioner to file a case. But now they can do it from home. Also, an SMS alert is sent about the next date of hearing, or if there is a notice for them. In the end, judgments are also updated online,” a senior official said.
“Work is going on to conduct hearings online as well to further ease the process for the public,” he added. Officials across districts say their work has become more systematic after the shift to online mode.
“Both citizens and officials are satisfied with the online system of filing and we have started a help desk in our district where we help people who find it difficult to file cases online,” said Isha Khosla, District Magistrate (South East).
“Now, since an SMS goes to the person when the next date of hearing is given, the person will expect a notice by post. If one doesn’t get it, they can check with us. So, the whole system has become much more efficient.”
Another official said that earlier, if someone used to file a case in a particular district but it pertained to another, transferring it used to be difficult. “But now it’s simple. Also, there is a profile for officials at different levels to monitor the cases,” he added.
