LAHORE: Taking notice of complaints in e-stamp-papers, the Lahore High Court (LHC) has taken remedial measures to deal with the issue involving public money in e-stamp papers (court fee) in the e-Stamping system.
According to a notification issued by the LHC Registrar Office, a district-wise training programme for its officers to save the public money has been launched and the training programme will be held for the nominees of each district from nine divisions of Punjab from May 21 to May 31 at Arfa Software Technology Park.
Millions of rupees are going to the national exchequer after the creation of e-Stamping system in 2014 as no mechanism was there since the creation of Pakistan to save the public money. Before 2014, fictitious, tempered and bogus stamp papers were sold, attached/placed with the cause/plaint and petitions across the country, causing loss of millions of rupees to the national exchequer.
The fake stamp papers and non-payment of the court fee was the biggest issue for which e-stamp papers were introduced in December 2016. However, the fake and tempering record of the e-Stamp papers didn’t come to an end, leading the authorities to start a training programme for employees to deal with the issue all over the province.
Supervisory officer Muhammad Akmal Khan, who has been serving at the LHC, is the pioneer of the e-Stamping system in the country.
The Punjab government framed E-Stamping Rules, 2016 in the light of the suggestions of Akmal Khan, who also pointed out the alleged issue of illegal appointments and promotions with the LHC.
Stamp paper is legally binding upon the litigants under High Court Rules and Orders and Stamp Act and Court Fee Act, 1870.
If a claim is more than Rs 25,000, Rs 15,000 rupees are legally required to sue or to file a petition before a competent court of jurisdiction. About 2,000 petitions of different categories are moved to the LHC each month.
However, no e-ticking system has so far been introduced by the Punjab government for revenue tickets which are mostly bogus and fake. They are valued at Rs 2, Rs 5 and Rs 10 but the vendors are presently selling these tickets at higher rates.