‘Can we think of e-courts if lawyers aren’t ready for even e-cause list?’

“Can we think of e-courts if advocates are not ready to adopt cause list provided in electronic form and object to the stopping of supply of cause list in printed form?

Ram Mohan Reddy, judge of the High Court of Karnataka and chairman of the Court Computerisation Committee, posed this question to members of the Advocates’ Association, Bangalore, during an interactive session on ‘Enhancements in computerisation of cause list’.

Interestingly, association president K.N. Subba Reddy, who is the father-in-law of Mr. Ram Mohan Reddy, said lawyers were used to printed cause list and its discontinuation would create hardship as many lawyers were not familiar with using computer.

Many members of the association are opposing the move to discontinue the supply of daily cause list in printed form.

“The Delhi High Court has six paperless e-courts. If lawyers were to object for accessing mere the cause list from the High Court’s website, then how can we even think of having e-courts in the State,” Mr. Ram Mohan Reddy wondered.

The benefit

Meanwhile, K. Sreedhar Rao, High Court judge, told the advocates that discontinuation of cause list in printed form would help the court to avoid “wasteful expenditure” of Rs. 50 lakh annually. The High Court has been uploading the daily cause list on its website from past many years apart from providing updates on cause list through mobile phones to lawyers from the past couple of years.

Mr. Ram Mohan Reddy said there were plans to provide updates of cases to lawyers through their registered mobile phones, sending court notices through e-mail to government departments, etc. If lawyers were to object for mere stopping of supply of printed cause list, then how could the High Court move ahead in the era of technology to fasten the process of litigation, he asked.

Some advocates welcomed the change but wanted time to adopt to the new system, claiming that the April 12 deadline fixed by the court to stop the supply of cause list in printed form was too short.

Meanwhile, judges pointed out that the only difficulty for lawyers would be to change their mindset, and assured that the court would organise sessions at different courts in the city to create awareness about shifting towards computerised system and obtaining the case lists through mobile phones.