Physical and e-filing of petitions will continue simultaneously in the Kerala High Court.
The decision was taken after representatives of a section of lawyers took up the issue with the High Court. They lawyers, who sought time for shifting to the digital mode, wanted more training sessions to be organised for themselves and their clerks.
The shift to the digital mode would be possible only after putting in place the required infrastructure and providing training for lawyers and clerks, said Joseph John, chairman of the Bar Council of Kerala.
As the responsibility of e-filing was on the lawyers and their clerks, it should have been implemented only after consultations with them. However, the Bar was kept in the dark, said Mr. John in a representation to the Chief Justice.
The hassles pertaining to e-filing, which was introduced in the commercial courts earlier, remained unresolved. There were several loopholes in the e-filing rules, which were prepared without sufficient understanding of the issues faced by the Bar, as per the representation.
Judicial sources indicated that the State would have to move to e-filing eventually, which would be beneficial to the public and the lawyers.
Benefits listed
e-filing had not been introduced in trial courts of the State. Once fully into e-filing, lawyers need not travel to courts to file applications. They would be able to move petitions to the courts from office or home. The cases thus filed would be automatically segregated and moved to the dashboard of the judges concerned without delay. The lawyers may check the status of the case from the dashboards, sources said.
Once orders were passed, the digitally signed orders would be delivered instantly to the lawyers. One need not come to the court to collect orders. The directions issued by the courts could be implemented without delay, they said.
e-filing system was in place for bail applications in the High Court. It could be extended to other matters too. The training module has been uploaded on YouTube, they said.
