Giving a kick-start to digital judicature, the first paperless e-court in Hyderabad High Court got inaugurated here on Sunday. The court which will start functioning from Monday will use digitised case records thereby brining down human resource required to maintain these on paper.
The e-court would provide an electronic case list (e-case list) before the presiding judge for him/her to make digital notings on a computer that has electronic case records. The case records and notings would be synchronised in the available database. Advocates, judges and all litigant parties can use the e-court facility to digitally file records. Also, the Court Display Board would be automatically updated as it is synced with the e-case list. Even SMS alerts would automatically be sent to advocates.
Justice P. Naveen Rao, one of the members of Computer Committee of the High Court, would preside over the e-court from Monday. To make the e-court functional approximately 1,000 case files had to be digitised initially, he said.
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As per the plan, more courts in Hyderabad High Court catering to both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh would be turned into e-courts. Acting Chief Justice, Dilip Babasaheb Bhosle in his address said four or five more e-courts could be functional in the next three months. Steps were also being taken to digitise court records in sub-ordinate courts.
However, e-filing of petitions would take another year to reach Hyderbad High Court. Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines, Justice Rao said, “We hope to make e-filing available by June, 2017. For successful e-filing of petitions, the courts should have enough infrastructure to submit physical documents that are usually submitted with the petition in the digital format.”
Madan B Lokur, Judge, Supreme Court and In charge, e-committee, Supreme Court, inaugurated the e-court. Addressing the gathering, he said that e-courts have already proven to be a success in New Delhi. As the country was moving towards digitisation in a massive manner, it was only apt for the courts too to become paperless as it speeded up the delivery of justice, Mr. Lokur said.
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The Hyderabad High Court has been proactive in introducing digital judicature formats even earlier. In July, 2015, the country launched an Android Mobile Application.
The application created a platform to disseminate case status information, case-lists and court notifications for the convenience of advocates and the litigants. The court had also launched an SMS alert system in August, 2015, to apprise advocates of the status of case filing, scrutiny and case registration via mobile phones. The court that has digital display boards had also developed an android-based mobile application to disseminate information relating to legal services and various Nalsa schemes.