The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday directed the State government to inform the court if it is ready to provide required space and funds for providing facilities for e-filing of petitions and documents in courts and tribunals across the State.
Observing that ideally the e-filing facility should be made available in all courts and all categories of litigations, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur made this observation in its order on a PIL petition, which has sought facility of e-filling in the courts. The Bench was hearing the petition filed by Dilraj Rohit Sequeira, an advocate, and two NGOs.
Pointing out that there is no point in starting e-filing facility without converting existing files and documents of the courts to e-format, the Bench said the process of converting files of pending cases into e-format requires huge manpower for separating sheets of files for scanning, high-speed scanning machines, huge space, and funds.
Stating that the High Court, at present, has no sufficient space to keep high- speed scanning machines, the Bench said the court’s new software, which was put to use from October 14, 2019, has a provision for e-filing but the issue is of space and funds.
It was contended in the petition that e-filing reduces the use of paper and thus saving trees and the environment as courts use large amounts of paper every day.
Pointing out that though the Supreme Court had announced e-filing system in 2017, the petitioners said it was yet to take off in Karnataka whereas four other High Courts have already started e-filing in phased manner by making e-filing mandatory in certain category of cases.
