Only few ones take initiatives to make departure from the established convention and it asks for lot of courage; especially in judicial matters. Haryana cadre IAS officer Ashok Khemka ranks among the finest officers. He has proved again that officers could continue to innovate new ways in public service. In a first, the court of the financial commissioner in Haryana, headed by him, has ordered the serving of summons in a property dispute case on WhatsApp to one of the respondents who shifted to Kathmandu.
Summons in such cases are usually sent by the registered post to the physical address of the respondents, but Khemka in his order observed that law follows technological advancements and is not fossilized.
The summons was ordered to be served on Whatsapp messenger service on April 6 to the respondent in a case involving a property partition dispute among three brothers in a village in Hisar district of Haryana. The court of the financial commissioner is a quasi-judicial body.
In the case, the process server (court official) had submitted a report that one of the respondents no longer resides in the village and had shifted to Kathmandu, but his address there was not known.