Family court lawyers flag issues in E-filing, write to CJ

The lawyers have raised issues like frequent server downtimes, website malfunctions, challenges in the litigants’ oath-taking process and poor bandwidth, which resulted in delays.

MUMBAI: E-filing, a process aimed at digitising and simplifying court proceedings, has become a major hurdle for litigants and lawyers practicing in Family Court in Bandra. Over 100 advocates have addressed a letter to the chief justice of Bombay high court, raising the problems they have been facing with the digitisation process, and the resultant delays in court proceedings.

Over 100 advocates have addressed a letter to the chief justice of Bombay high court, raising the problems they have been facing with the digitisation process, and the resultant delays in court proceedings. (Shutterstock)

In February last year, HT had reported about the challenges faced by litigants and lawyers due to the mandatory e-filing process. The lawyers had raised issues like frequent server downtimes, website malfunctions, challenges in the litigants’ oath-taking process and poor bandwidth, which resulted in delays.

“The process has turned worse now,” said advocate Shraddha Dalvi, one of the lawyers spearheading the signature campaign to address the issue. The letter has listed various technical and procedural issues in the e-filing system at family court, causing difficulties for litigants and legal professionals.

“If I upload something, it takes one hour before it becomes visible in the portal,” said Dalvi, adding that lawyers eventually end up giving hard copies because the judicial department could not access the documents online due to technical glitches.

E-filing system started in September 2023, a process made mandatory in the lower courts of Maharashtra under the third phase of the E-court mission mode project. The purpose was to develop online filing of plaints, written statements, replies and various applications related to civil and criminal cases through a website, with each user being given a unique User ID and password.

“The website is down for at least 10 to 12 days in a month. When I file something from the convenience of my home, sometimes it takes days to become visible on the portal,” said advocate Tara Hegde. “Oath recordings are often not reflected in the department records even though they are successfully uploaded from the side of the lawyer. It becomes a time-consuming process for the litigants and their clients because they have to repeat the whole thing.”

Advocate Ravi Jadhav, the president of the Bar Association of Bombay City Civil and Sessions courts, said that despite a huge investment in the e-committee by the government, there is no dedicated server, no proper connectivity and the server is down most of the time.

Advocate Shraddha Vavhal, who has received training from the government on e-filing, believes that the project is good, but the implementation is tedious. Vavhal provides training on e-filing in the lower courts, working under a centralised project coordinator. “There should be a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) from the side of the government, and proper technical development,” she opined.