Riya looked at the clock in the evening, but she got confused and described the positions of the hands incorrectly. She said that the minute hand was on $7$ and the hour hand was on $12$, whereas in reality, the positions of the hands were interchanged. What was the actual time?

According to Riya's incorrect observation:
* Minute hand was at $7$.
* Hour hand was at $12$.

Since the actual positions were exactly interchanged:

* The actual hour hand is at $7$ (indicating the hour is $7$).
* The actual minute hand is at $12$ (indicating $0$ minutes past the hour).

Since it is explicitly stated to be in the evening, the actual time was $7:00\text{ PM}$.