The court of chief judicial magistrate in Jorhat. Telegraph picture

Jorhat, Nov. 19: When Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Jan Dhan Yojana, he may not have imagined that the scheme to provide bank accounts for one and all would come as a boon to divorcees here.

Taking advantage of the easy process to open an account, the office of the chief judicial magistrate in collaboration with the district legal service authority here will initiate a move on the court premises on December 13 to open accounts of divorced women so that their maintenance money can be paid into these accounts instead of them having to come to court every month to collect alimony.

In this regard notices will be issued to paralegal volunteers attached to different police stations in the district. Through the district information and public relations offices, village defence personnel and gaonburahs (village elders) will be contacted to give massive publicity of the move.

A paralegal volunteer is a person who is trained in subsidiary legal matters but not fully qualified as a lawyer.

Chief judicial magistrate Darak Ullah said once the bank accounts are opened, it will be easier for the courts to give rulings in favour of depositing the amount — which has to be paid as maintenance — into bank accounts, thus making the process easier for all.

“At present except for Titabar and Majuli subdivisions in all areas falling under Jorhat, Teok, Pulibar and Bhogamukh police stations men will be asked to deposit alimonies into bank accounts of their former wives. For the ongoing cases, the same rule will be applied to depositing the money into their former wives’ accounts,” Ullah said.

At present, the process is tedious and entails loss of energy and money apart from waste of a whole day.

An official of the court said a divorced woman has to spend a lot to collect alimony. She has to pay fare of her escort, pay a petition writer and hire a lawyer. She often has to waste one man day if she is a working woman. “After that a peskar (accountant) will have to take out her file and find out if the money has been deposited. Then a judge has to pass the order for payment, resulting in waste of time, energy and money for staff of the court and persons concerned,” the official said.

The payee also has to come one day to court to deposit the money with the peskar or hire a lawyer to pay the money on his behalf, thus wasting his time and money as well.

The official said opening up accounts for these women under the PM’s Jan Dhan Yojana would be easy as there is no need to furnish PAN card, driving licence, passport, land paper or landline telephone or electricity bill, all of which these women, mostly belonging to the underprivileged section, do not possess. They have just to get a certificate signed by a gaonburah or by a magistrate.