The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked the National Informatics Centre (NIC) to examine the feasibility of using internet to communicate orders on bail and acquittal, to be made available to all courts and jails in the state.

The direction was given by a division bench of Justices Ranjana Desai and R G Ketkar, while hearing a public interest litigation stating that even after an accused is granted bail or acquitted there is a delay in the order copy being sent to the jail or lower court thus resulting in illegal detention of the accused.

According to the PIL, after an acquittal or bail order is passed it takes over a week for the accused to be released from jail. An affidavit filed by the High Court Registry today said that the acquittal and bail order copies are received late from the court. Once the order is received, the signature of the assistant registrar is taken after which it is sent by ordinary post to the concerned prison or lower court.

"Instead of sending the order copy via ordinary post the department should send it through speed post," the court directed. The affidavit further suggested for the present practice of order copy delivery to be done via web service.

"In a web-based service, each district court can be given a login and password through which they can access all the acquittal and bail orders that will be uploaded. Whenever the court accesses the order, the date and time stamp will be recorded automatically," it states.

The court has sought the expertise of the NIC to examine the feasibility and safety of this system. "Prima facie it seems to be good but we would like to get it checked by experts before implementing it," the bench observed, directing the NIC to submit a report within four weeks.