HC launches app to serve summons

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan high court on Friday launched a mobile application to serve summons.

Acting chief justice Mohammad Rafiq launched the app ‘National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP)’, along with another app ‘ Rajasthan High Court eservices’, at a function organised by the Jaipur bench of the Rajasthan high court.

“The (NSTEP) application will curtail the time spent in (serving of) summons and also make the service of court process transparent,” said Rafiq.

The second application is aimed at giving information about the cases in the Rajasthan high court. It is equipped with a feature named ‘My Diary’ where the lawyers can manage their cases as per the date.

“The NSTEP has originally been developed by the e-committee of Supreme Court of India and NIC (National Informatics Centre) for electronic services of court processes through hand held smart phones,” said Rafiq.

The initial version of the application was in English, which has been customised to Hindi to cater to the needs of local litigants. The Rajasthan High court is the first to launch the NSTEP application in vernacular language, Rafiq said.

In the NSTEP application, the summons/notices generated with the courts will directly move to the process service wing of the court, after which it will be allocated to the process server. Since the summon will then be available in the mobile app of the process server, it will capture photo, signature/thumb impression along with the place of service. The status of the service will then be communicated to the court issuing summons in the preferred format in which services are demanded by court. Courts can immediately identify the photo, signature and location of the services and carry out legal proceedings accordingly.

The mobile services were l a unched bot h i n i OS a nd android format and a summon from Jaipur to Sirohi district was served at the launch of the event.