Delhi Court accepts blue tick on WhatsApp as valid proof of served notice

What seems to be the first case of its kind, a Civil Court in Delhi’s Rohini accepted the blue double-tick of WhatsApp chat as a valid proof of the notice being served. A man served notice to his daughter-in-law, her parents and her friend on WhatsApp in connection with a property dispute.

Once he saw ‘blue double tick’ on the chat — indicating that his message had been read — he took out a colour printout of the screenshot, and submitted it to the court as proof that the notice has been served, reported Indian Express. Notedly, the Delhi High Court had allowed the use of social network like Whatsapp and email in judicial proceedings.

Notedly, the Delhi High Court had allowed the use of social network like Whatsapp and email in judicial proceedings. A resident of Delhi’s model town, the man filed an appeal in the civil court requesting them to immediately restrain his son and daughter-in-law, her parents and her friend from “trespassing into the suit property”, the IE report says. To save time, Senior Civil Judge Sidharth Mathur allowed him to send the notice to all of them via WhatsApp.

Following the submission of the coloured print outs, the Court said,“These defendants, thus, certainly have acquired knowledge of the summons and the hearing today”.

In his order, Justice Mathur stated: “I have gone through the record. The conveyance deed… of the suit property is in the name of plaintiff which makes him the exclusive owner… The defendants are restrained from trespassing into the suit property without due process of law till the next date of hearing.#casansaar