Two months after launch, e-stamps sale crosses Rs 2 crore mark

The Madras High Court is the first in south India and eighth in the country to introduce both online and offline e-court fee payment. This advocate/ litigant centric initiative, which was pending for long, was introduced by the government of Tamil Nadu on April 19 through its Central Record Keeping Agency viz Stock Holding Corporation of India Ltd (SHCIL) as an alternative to the prevailing system of physical stamp paper, franking and adhesive stamps. 

Instead of presenting huge volumes of stamp papers depending on the case, the e-court fee receipts can be attached along with case bundles while presenting them in the High Court Registry at the time of filing cases. 

Enthused by the response, Justice TS Sivagnanam, chairman of the computerisation committee of the HC, has reportedly called for the extension of service to all the district headquarters. 

An official at the High Court Registry confirmed that the work in this regard is under way and since the process is a computer-based application and a secure electronic way of stamping documents, the network governing the district courts are being augmented to accept e-stamps.

Stamp duty collected by the states can be broadly divided into two categories, viz., stamp duty paid under the Indian Stamp Act, 1899, and stamps used in payment of fees under the Court-fees Act 1870. 

In fact, the process had come into being after the HC had sent a proposal in 2017 for introducing e-stamps. The proposal was accepted and Sections 74 and 75 of the Tamil Nadu Court Fees and Suits Valuation Act of 1965 were amended to pave way for the facility. 

Judicial stamps are also known as court fee stamp paper. Advocate LG Sahadevan on citing a plea that was moved in the HC in 2013 seeking a direction to the Registry to issue challan for paying Rs 48 lakh as court fee through RBI as the Sub Treasury Office was unable to furnish it, said, “e-stamps have simplified the cumbersome process of attaching judicial stamps especially when a huge amount is involved as court fee. 

With the maximum value of a judicial stamp being Rs 5,000, the number of stamp papers that have to be attached if the fee works out to a few lakhs can well be imagined.” 

For many, the online facility has turned out to be a blessing as it has curtailed the process of physically standing in a queue to obtain the stamp papers. 

For the court staff, the process of filing a single receipt regardless of the quantum of court fee paid is expected to do away with storing the unwanted stock of defaced judicial stamp papers. But a disadvantage about the e-stamps is that in the event of it being misplaced or lost, a duplicate cannot be issued. Even cancellation can be done only at SHCIL offices and not at the counter where it was obtained.