Family courts directed to follow digital mode of payment

Justice R M T Teekaa Raman while enhancing the maintenance amount awarded to a woman from Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000, said, “When the entire country is marching towards e-governance under ‘Digital India’ programme initiated by the Union government, judiciary, particularly family courts, should also update themselves utilising such initiatives, specifically in respect of disbursement of alimony.” Noting that the courts seem to be still following the age-old procedures of cheque petition enquiry and issuance of cheque thereon on filing of the memo for payment to the wife, said, “Only in the Family Court in Chennai, the facility of crediting the award amount deposited in the court to that of the bank account of the wife seems to have been followed through ECS while all other Family Courts across the State are making cumbersome procedures making things difficult for the wife to come to the court for the maintenance to live a decent livelihood.” Holding that the vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy, the judge insisted on the need for the lower judiciary to update themselves on a par with the scheme floated by the Union of India by utilising the Digital India programme.

However, the judge while observing that since such payments through digital mode were not covered under the e-court project, another initiative to digitalise the entire court proceedings, directed the Registrar to place the order before the e-court committee for getting administrative sanction to family courts to go digital.