"Punjab and Haryana High Court recently issued a directive to the State and Union Territory governments, instructing revenue courts to adopt modern means of communication for the service of notices, summons, and exchange of pleadings. The court emphasized that instant messaging services like WhatsApp, Telegram, Signal, as well as email and fax, can be utilized for this purpose. The objective behind this directive is to prevent undue delays in proceedings before revenue courts, especially in cases where parties intend to prolong the proceedings intentionally."

Justice Arvind Singh Sangwan issued the order with the intention of preventing unnecessary delays in proceedings before revenue courts, especially in cases where parties in possession of land deliberately aim to prolong the proceedings.

The court ordered that all revenue courts, while accepting pleadings, should request the parties and their respective advocates to provide their email addresses, phone numbers (including WhatsApp), and other similar contact information available with the litigants. This will enable the courts to use these platforms for effective communication.

Additionally, the court ruled that the traditional method of munadi, which involves the service of notice by beating a drum as prescribed in various statutes, should be discontinued as it is considered obsolete.

If the summons cannot be served on the next hearing date using the aforementioned methods, the court has granted revenue courts the discretion to order publication in a newspaper.

The court's decision was prompted by a plea against the non-compliance of a 2021 order, where a revenue court was directed to dispose of a 19-year-old partition application within six months. The assistant collector, in an affidavit, informed the court that despite issuing multiple notices, the summons could not be served, leading to prolonged proceedings.

To ensure compliance with the directive, the court ordered that a copy of the order be sent to the Chief Secretaries of Punjab and Haryana, as well as the Administrator of Chandigarh. These authorities were instructed to file a compliance report by October 4.

In the meantime, the assistant collector was directed to conclude the proceedings without further delay, utilizing one of the prescribed modern methods of communication for the service of notices.

Advocate Vineet Chaudhary appeared on behalf of the petitioner, while AAG Harsh Vardhan Shehrawat represented the State.

Case Title: Amar Singh v Sanjeev Kumar