What the 65-year-old widow had not bargained for was a maddening war with the Postal Department, which has steered her case into a cul-de-sac from which Shaikh sees no exit for the moment. Receipts for summons to Shaikh's relatives abroad have not been received and the court's directions to the widow's lawyer to inquire with the Postal Department have left the litigant in abject frustration. In 1992, Shaikh filed a suit in the City Civil Court, asserting her claim over two shops owned by her late husband at Bhendi Bazaar and Dongri. She resorted to legal action after her brothers-in-law stopped paying her the Rs 60 per day agreed upon after her husband's death in 1986. In 1997, however, the case was amended effecting a change in the frame of references and chamber summons were served onShaikh's relatives, some of them NRIs in the UK, to notify them of the development. However, only one of the six acknowledgement receipts arrived, leading to repeated adjournments. Says Shaikh's daughter, Ruhanaaz, ``The defendants were sent chamber summons on May 6, 1997. However, only one acknowledgement receipt was received.'' The court then asked her mother's advocate M M Bagadia to inquire with the Postal Department and on August 7, 1997, the court registered a complaint with the Computerised Customer Care Centre at the Dadar Post Office. A reminder was also sent in December 4. ``On January 28, 1998, faxed complaints were dispatched to the then Union communications minister, Beni Prasad Verma, secretary, Department of Posts, RVS Prasad, chief post-master general, Mumbai Circle, Aparna Mohile, and the post-master general, Mumbai, V K Khanna. But there was no response, Ruhanaaz says.

Inquiries revealed that the case was being handled by assistant post-master general (public grievances), and Ruhanaaz wastold her case had been taken up with the department's Foreign Administration Cell on January 28, 1998. She was also told that the cell takes two months to dispose of articles. A reply is still awaited. On one occasion, she recalls, an abrasive postal official asked her why the summons had not been sent via a private courier.

The Shaikhs fervently wish that were so. Only, being a court matter, the services of a government department were enlisted to facilitate communication. The Department of Posts has clearly illustrated how effective that can be.