Jamshedpur civil court: Forced to a standstill

Jamshedpur, May 21: The steel city is witnessing an acute shortage of non-judicial stamp papers for some weeks now.

As a consequence, people, including the litigants, are facing a harrowing time in getting their work done. The document, which is used for preparing affidavits and completing other legal formalities, is also being sold at a premium.

People are forced to buy non-judicial stamps from Seraikela court at a premium to make agreement papers and meeting legal emergency situations.

Stamp vendors said that the demand for non-judicial stamp papers have exceeded our supply, triggering a shortage of this important document.

“Demand for non-judicial stamp papers in denominations of Rs 10 and 20 is the most in demand. But we are not able to meet the demand as the supply has been stopped for almost a month now,” said one of the vendors near the executive court.

Non-judicial stamp papers of higher denominations are, however, available. Sources added that the supply of non-judicial stamp papers is not made proportionately.

“The supply of this document is far less than what is required in a place like Jamshedpur. But things are not coming up as we would have wanted. Important work is getting delayed due to the shortage of non-judicial stamp papers,” a vendor complained.

Interestingly, the district treasury officer, Kamlesh Choudhary, said there was no scarcity of non-judicial stamp papers. He, however, remained silent when asked as to why the vendors had no stock of the document.

“I do issue non-judicial stamp papers once every week. This week also, I have issued the papers. So when the non-judicial stamp papers are being issued, then where did the crisis crop up from,” added the district treasury officer.

Choudhary admitted about the crisis only when some lower-ranking staff in his office divulged that the non-judicial papers of denominations between Rs 10 and Rs 100 had not being issued since the past one month.

Kamlesh Choudhary prompted to claim that he was concerned about the shortage of the non-judicial stamp papers in the district and that he has already apprised the East Singhbhum deputy commissioner about the matter.

“We have already requested the deputy commissioner to ensure that the supply of the non-judicial papers remains intact. I hope that the matter is resolved shortly,” said the treasury officer.

Deputy commissioner R.K. Agarwal said the document is supplied from Ranchi. “I will look into the matter and initiate steps to overcome this problem,” he said.