High Court Directs Delhi Govt To Operationalize Within One Month Online Portal For Clearing Its Lawyers' Bills

The Delhi High Court has directed the Delhi Government to immediate take steps for operationalizing the Online Single Window System (OSWS) portal for clearing fee memos of its lawyers and for inaugurating the same within the one month.

Justice Prathiba M Singh asked the Delhi Government to file a report regarding the functioning of the portal and listed the matter for hearing on March 07.

The court was dealing with a plea moved by a Delhi Government’s panel counsel, Anjana Gosain. It was her case that she had raised various memos for her professional services which were outstanding and not being cleared by the government.

In January last year, the court was informed that the Single Window System software had been finalized and had been referred to the Delhi Government for testing. It was also stated that the system would go live after the security audit.

During the hearing on November 02, the IT Team of Delhi Government’s Law Department gave a demonstration of the portal for processing of bills of advocates who appear for GNCTD.

The court was informed that the OSWS software has a built-in timeline and the maximum time within which the fee memos can pass through each level of officials is between 3 to 7 days.

The court was also informed that the overall timeline for clearing of the bill would be no more than 20 to 25 days.

The Principal Secretary, Law of Delhi Government also assured the court that the portal is ready to go live and the file has been moved to the concerned authority for its inauguration.

“Let the GNCTD and the officials concerned take steps immediately for operationalising the OSWS portal and for inaugurating/starting the same within the next one month. Let a report qua functioning of the portal be placed on record at least 2 weeks before the next date of hearing,” the court said.

Case Title: ANJANA GOSAIN v. GOVERNMENT OF NCT AND ANR.

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Del) 1085

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