Delhi High Court - Orders
Anjana Gosain vs Government Of Nct And Anr on 17 January, 2023
Author: Prathiba M. Singh
Bench: Prathiba M. Singh
$~30
* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI
+ W.P.(C) 2506/2019 and CM APPL. 19643/2021
ANJANA GOSAIN ..... Petitioner
Through: None.
versus
GOVERNMENT OF NCT AND ANR. ..... Respondents
Through: Mr. Sameer Vashisht and Mr.
Naushad Ahmad Khan, ASCs (Civil),
GNCTD. (M:9818280821)
Mr. Bharat Parashar, Principal
Secretary (Law), GNCTD appearing
virtually
CORAM:
JUSTICE PRATHIBA M. SINGH
ORDER
% 17.01.2023
1. This hearing has been done through hybrid mode.
2. This Court has been monitoring and supervising the Online Single Window System (hereinafter, "OSWS") for payment of fees of government counsels appearing for the GNCTD.
3. Further to the last order dated 14th December, 2022, several counsels appearing for the GNCTD both in the past and present, have appeared before the Court today. Their submission is that a number of GNCTD counsels have been allotted login ID and password. However, there are a large number of existing and past counsels of the GNCTD, who are yet to be allotted the login ID and password. In addition, it is submitted by them that the quantum of bills for payment pending with the revenue department are substantial and no payments are being released and only objections and W.P.(C) 2506/2019 Page 1 of 3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:DEVANSHU JOSHI Signing Date:18.01.2023 17:45:09 technical issues are being raised.
4. Insofar as the NIC portal is concerned, Mr. Bharat Parashar, Principal Secretary (Law), GNCTD, who has recently taken over as Principal Secretary, has appeared before the Court virtually and submits that the NIC portal now has the capability to accept scanned copies of the bills and other documents. He further submits that insofar as the past counsels of GNCTD are concerned, the login ID and password are not currently being allotted but the same would be allotted to them in the future.
5. In view of the fact that a number of issues being faced are common to most counsels, let a joint note be prepared by Mr. Sameer Vashisht and Mr. Naushad Ahmad Khan, ld. ASCs (hereinafter 'Committee'), after interacting with all the ASCs and panel counsels. The Committee shall then submit the same to Mr. Bharat Parashar within one week and also file the copy of the same before this Court.
6. Mr. Bharat Parashar shall also hold an interaction with the Committee, so as to understand the grievances of the counsels relating to pending memos and arrive at some solution in terms of time lines, verification, approval processes, etc., after coordinating with the Departments concerned.
7. In any event, in the interregnum, while grievances of the counsels are being addressed, the following steps are directed to be taken immediately:
a. All the past and present counsels of GNCTD in the civil side shall be allotted login ID and password on or before 31st January, 2023. If such counsels have not been allotted the login ID and password, they shall communicate the same to the Principal Secretary, W.P.(C) 2506/2019 Page 2 of 3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:DEVANSHU JOSHI Signing Date:18.01.2023 17:45:09 through the Committee, so that the respective login ID and password can be obtained from the NIC.
b. Let the test run of the NIC portal, which is stated to be almost ready for accepting bills in the scanned form, be done with the bills of 5 GNCTD counsels, who may be identified by the Committee, set up above.
c. If there are any glitches, which are faced in the running of the portal, then they shall be addressed to the NIC by Mr. Parashar. Let a status report in regard to the functioning of the NIC portal be placed before the Court before the next date of hearing. d. Insofar as the generation of OTP based signature is concerned, since the same is to be done under the aegis of Centre for Development of Advanced Computing ('CDAC'), the said efforts shall parallelly continue. The same would not affect the development and commencement of NIC portal where the counsels would be permitted to place their scanned bills until the OTP mechanism is operational.
8. Let the first meeting be held on 3rd February, 2023 at 4:00 pm between the Committee and Mr. Bharat Parashar.
9. List for receiving of report from Mr. Parashar on 7th March, 2023 at 4:00 pm.
10. This is a part-heard matter.
PRATHIBA M. SINGH, J.
JANUARY 17, 2023/dk/sk W.P.(C) 2506/2019 Page 3 of 3 Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:DEVANSHU JOSHI Signing Date:18.01.2023 17:45:09