NEW DELHI: Irked with the slow pace of judicial system, 2009 IAS topper Shubhra Saxena and District Magistrate of Hardoi in Uttar Pradesh has developed an app through which court summons can be
delivered to witnesses via SMS. The software named Saakshi is being used in Hardoi district, and delivers summons electronically, reducing manual intervention. As soon as a summons from court reaches a police official, he/she will fill in all details about the case and send it as an SMS to the person concerned. A copy of the SMS will be sent to the police official under whose jurisdiction the person resides.
On Saturday, Saxena gave a presentation of the app before the Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Dilip Babasaheb Bhosale and police officials. The Ministry of Law and Justice is also studying her software.
“The system will have the name of the person against whom the summons is issued, his mobile number, his address and the police station of the district he belongs to. A category will highlight if he is an accused. If so, the system will indicate a higher alert,” says Saxena. “The software seeks to do away with the current modus operandi, in which a policemen delivers a hard copy of the summons.”
India’s district courts have a whopping 2.8 crore pending cases, of which 58.8 lakh are in UP alone.
In 2012, Saxena was served with a non-bailable warrant for ignoring summons to appear in court, but the summons never reached her. She was then sub-district magistrate, Bulandshahar. This inspired her
to create an app to do away with hand-delivered summons. She is a software engineer,
and before clearing the IAS, worked with the IT industry.
“Sometimes, the investigating officer or the medical officer of a case is transferred out of the district, due to which summons fail to reach them. They are crucial witnesses in a trial. Without their testimony, conviction cannot be secured,” she explains. The app will also mark attendance of a witness in court.
SMS alert
Aims to deliver summons to witnesses in criminal trials electronically, A police official will fill in details about the case and send an SMS to the person concerned, A copy of the SMS will be sent to the police official under whose jurisdiction the person resides.