Jharkhand High Court

Advocates of Jharkhand High Court will now be able to know the status of cases they are fighting with a beep on their mobile phones.

Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Virender Singh on Tuesday inaugurated the much-awaited SMS service that will allow lawyers to receive information like the daily cause list and status of certified copies of judgments on their cellphones.

Chief Justice Singh launched the integrated message service with a click on a laptop at a function organised at the White Hall.

While the high court’s website will post the online display board projecting daily serial of cases running in each courtroom and status of cases arising out of FIRs, the daily cause list, status of certified copies of judgments and other such details will be sent via SMSes to advocates whose mobile phone numbers are registered with the high court.

With this new system in vogue, an advocate will have the liberty to track his/her case from anywhere via the Internet, thus benefiting clients too.

Speaking on the occasion, Chief Justice Virender Singh said: “This new message service is a novel way to streamline functioning of the high court. Work will become more transparent and the efficiency of employees will improve. The system has been launched and will be a boon for advocates and their clients.”

Justice D.N. Patel added that the exact serial number of cases running before any judge at the high court would be also visible on the website and displayed on the mobile phone screen of advocates.

Explaining another unique feature of the SMS service, Justice Patel said that advocates, whose phone numbers are in the data base of the high court, would also receive advance information of cases listed for hearing the next day.

“This service of personal intimation of cases to advocates is only prevalent in Karnataka and Jharkhand will be the second state in the country to introduce the service. Many times, accessing the Internet is not possible because of poor network. In such circumstances, an SMS alert will be sent to the particular advocate on his mobile phone,” he added.