34 digital cheque bounce courts in Delhi move to Rouse Avenue complex, minus staff

Indian Express

2 days ago

The judges of 34 digital NI Act (Negotiable Instruments Act) courtrooms, which hear cheque bounce cases, across six court complexes in Delhi have been shifted to the Rouse Avenue court complex. However, the court staff (readers, ahlmads and stenographers) will continue to operate from their respective districts.
Of the 34 courtrooms, nine are from Dwarka, seven from Tis Hazari, six from Saket, five from Karkardooma Court, four from Rohini, and three from Patiala House Court.
On Friday, Delhi High Court Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya inaugurated the 34 digital courts at the Rouse Avenue complex to exclusively hear cases under the NI Act.
An administrative order passed by Principal District and Sessions Judge and Special Judge Kanwal Jeet Arora of Rouse Avenue Court read: 'The following judicial officers shall occupy and hold their courts in court room numbers mentioned against their names with immediate effect.'
'As per the directives of the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi, New Delhi, vide notification… dated 30.05.2025, the courts shall continue to be under the administrative control/supervision/ jurisdiction of the districts concerned to which these courts belong,' the order dated May 31 stated.
This essentially means that while the court staff will operate from their respective districts, all judges will have to sit in Rouse Avenue Court. All rooms have been allotted on the seventh floor of the court complex, which is situated near the ITO Metro in Central Delhi.
In a May 30 notification, the Delhi High Court cited 'optimal utilisation of available infrastructure and resources' and 'inadequate space' to justify the move. 'The remaining arrangement, including support staff deployment and recording of evidence from the respective District Court Complexes, shall continue as per the previous directions/practice until adequate and permanent space is made available in the concerned District Courts to which these Digital NI Act Courts ultimately belong,' the notification read.
'However, these Courts shall continue to be under the administrative control/supervision/jurisdiction of the concerned districts to which these courts belong. The readers, ahlmads, and judicial records of these Digital NI Act Courts would also continue to function from their original districts so as to avoid any inconvenience to the litigants, lawyers, and stakeholders,' it added.
'We are being told that only judges have been moved to Rouse Avenue Court, but a circular outside a courtroom states that all matters will be physically taken up at Rouse Avenue,' Dhir Singh Kasana, advocate and former Saket Bar Association secretary, told The Indian Express.
'If lawyers situated in Saket have to travel to Rouse Avenue, it will cause a big problem… There should be some clarity. There are no chambers in Rouse, while we have those in Saket. There was no space crunch in Saket Court…these courtrooms already existed in our district,' said Kasana.
At court complexes across Delhi, 800 judges are hearing close to 15 lakh pending cases (2 lakh civil and 13 lakh criminal). Of these, 4.5 lakh or over 30 per cent are cases related to cheque bounce claims.
On any given day, NI Act courts hear a minimum of 50 cases and a maximum of 200 cases, and have six times the average pendency of other courts. As per the Act, cheque bounce cases ought to be disposed of within six months.
The staff in the NI Act courts are among the most burdened across Delhi's judiciary. 'Twice a month, we might have to travel to Rouse. In case a judge asks for a document or case file, we might have to physically deliver it,' a court staff member told The Indian Express.