NEW DELHI, Oct 30: The Supreme Court has proposed serving court summons through SMS, WhatsApp and email in contrast to the present system of physical delivery to the accused. The Supreme Court has asked the High Courts and State DGPs for their opinion on switching to the digital means.

A bench of the Chief Justice of India SA Bobde and Justice L Nageswara Rao was examining various measures to remove deficiencies in criminal trials and ways to expedite them, on Tuesday.

The apex court directed the High Courts and the DGPs to give suggestions within four weeks on a report of senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and lawyer K Parameshwar, who recommended serving summons through digital platforms.

“The High Courts must also be directed to formulate a scheme for online mediation of pending cases at the trial/appeal/ revisional stages so that pending cases could be effectively disposed of. In fact, this scheme may act as a guide for pre- summons mediation to be adopted through an online platform rather than summon the accused physically, for the purposes of mediation. The High Courts must be directed to identify the technical platform and other resources required in this regard,” the report said.