Now, keep your phones on ‘silent mode’ in District Courts

Ishrat S Banwait

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

Till now, various posters were pasted outside the district courts complex and the court rooms barred mobile phones inside court rooms. However, one court has now pasted a notice that mobile phones should be kept on ‘silent mode’ inside the court.

A notice barring mobile phones inside court rooms is pasted at the entrance of the district courts as well. The court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate has put up a notice saying that no phone shall ring within a radius of 50 metre of the court room.

The courts have slowly but surely taken progressive steps towards using technology.

It took 11 months to video conferencing in each court after the equipment arrived. Recently, the summons issued has started to include a QR code which can be used to open the complete details of the case using the e- court mobile application. Courts are now also using a public announcement system to call for the case which is to be heard.

The next step towards making the courts hi- tech is the installation of screens to display the cause list and case status digitally. Two screens are to be installed for the purpose in each court room.

However, the screens have been lying in the court complex for over a month but are not being installed. However, the hurdle is there are no switch boards in courts to plug in the equipment.