Webinar on Online demo of e-filing module on behalf of e-committee of Supreme Court of India and Registry was held today.
President Supreme Court Bar Association, Dushyant Dave: “Lifeline of the Bar”
On digitisation of Courts, Mr Dave said that:
“It may open new vistas for normalising work which has been parallelised due to COVID-19.”
“If Judicial work is parallelised, democracy is in danger”
“Present times demand greater vigil from judiciary.”
“I request for combination of digitisation and e-hearing with physical hearings.”
Address by Dr Justice Chandrachud
“What we do today will define the future”
“In using technology, our mortar in e-committee is simple, efficiency, transparency and access to every user of justicing services”
“One of our initiative have been to open E- Seva Kendras in every High Court, District Court of the Country.”
“We must seek to provide sustainable digitisation and transformational change in reconceptualising the interaction between citizens, lawyers, judiciary and the environment.”
“E-Filing enhances the right of citizens to efficient justice delivery.”
Key Features of e-filing module as briefed by Justice Chandrachud are:
- 24 x 7 Filing
- Envisaged the online communication of defects of scrutiny of the matter which are filed
- E-Payment of court fees
- Digital Signatures
- Dashboard will provide personalised information
Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde
“We are meeting an extraordinary situation in extraordinary times”
“Since the pandemic we have been forced to rethink on how we function, to rethink on what is essential to the judicial process, not in the sense of actual hearing of cases and the decision, but the other things leading up to the decision in what.”
“Supreme Court was amongst the 1st institution in the country to respond to this danger.”
“We were determined and still are to ensure that the court does not become a centre for propagation of the virus.”
“This business of e-filing seems to be the 1st step in the entire process of e-courts.”
” I myself have sat on an E-Court with Justice Nageswara Rao and I must tell you that the experience was disappointing.”; “The main reason was that the data does not come to the computer screen in an editable format and you cannot write on the screen.”
“E-filing is something which will ensure that the computer system works wonderfully.”
“There is no doubt that this system of e-filing has received an impetus because of the virus and not necessarily our dynamism.”
3 factors have been borne in mind while designing this:
- Service which has been provided to the bar and litigants should facilitate access to justice.
- Technology must be simple to use and should not exclude any citizen.
- Mission is to provide facilities for effective and inexpensive access to justice.
“Numerous personal features for Advocates on Record.”
“E-Filing is undoubtedly very significant since it is the basis of a system of Artificial Intelligence.”
“If we had this system when the Ayodhya Matter was being heard, I don’t know how fast we could have dealt with it.”
“Records of thousands and thousands of pages can be extracted in a minute.”
Here’s the link to the webinar:
How can one access the E-filing module as shown in the demo? The E-filing tab on the website still takes to the previously (currently) available mechanism which is quite different.