E-Paper
Trial courts to go paperless, online facility ready for use
All documents required in a case, including affidavits, written statements, and other records can be submitted online.
The Supreme Court’s e-committee has launched a new software to make the online filing of cases in trial courts possible, a step taken to ease the cumbersome procedure done physically and go paperless.
A significant step taken under the e-courts programme started in 2005 to digitise judicial proceedings, the new system can do away with the existing one of e-filing under which a lawyer has to first save a copy of the petition in a pen drive and then carry it to the registry to download it.
However, with the new software, a lawyer or litigant need not go to court and can file from a place with internet access.
“It happens in so many cases that litigants and lawyers do not reside in the same district where the case is being heard.
“Either they have to depend on a local lawyer or have to go there physically to file their documents. This software will not require them to stand in queues to submit their papers,” an officer involved with the project told HT.
The facility would not be restricted to just petitions. All documents required in a case, including affidavits, written statements, and other records can be submitted online.
When HT contacted justice MB Lokur, the e-committee’s chairman, he confirmed that the software was ready for use.
“This is the first-of-its-kind software in the country. It was launched last week after the National Informatics Centre ensured it conforms to all requirements and standards the government has fixed for such projects,” he said.
Justice Lokur said the software is undergoing pilot testing in some districts.
“This will go on for a week and then would be ready for use in all district courts,” he said.
By the end of this week, eight high courts that are live on the national judicial data grid can also avail of the service.
“So a lawyer in Bijnor can sit in his office and file a fresh case in the Allahabad high court,” the officer said.
