High Court gears up for digital transformation

Though the system of e-filing had come into vogue in 2006, the partial transformation of a digital Supreme Court is transpiring after a decade. This means that under the new system built on integrated case management information system (ICMIS) all the 24 high courts and the subordinate courts in the country will have to be integrated into the system. 

A highly-placed source in the registry said as part of the High Court-Supreme Court interface, a separate Supreme Court section has been set up with all necessary accessories like scanners to ensure that all case files pertaining to appeals that end up in the Supreme Court reach it promptly.

Moreover, since the Madras High Court is one among the chartered high courts, along with Calcutta and the Bombay High Courts, wherein in all records needs to be stored, it possesses over three lakh bundles with some pertaining to even the 18th century, the process of digitising all the records have commenced. 

In fact, the bid pertaining to digitising the old files is complete with an agency selected to electronically store around 20 crore pages of case bundles as well as administrative files in a year. As per the agreement, the company which has bagged the contract is expected to scan at least one lakh papers a day to ensure that the process is completed within a year. 

As per the SC website, as on May 2017, there are 60,751 matters pending in the Supreme Court while among the 24 High Courts as many as 38.7 lakh cases are pending. But when it comes to the lower courts in the country, the pending cases crosses the three-crore mark. In Tamil Nadu, along with the high court digitisation, Rs 23 crore has been sanctioned to commence the process at the lower courts. 

This process is crucial since as per the new system, the apex court is supposed to electronically collect records of trial courts and high courts so as to do away with the prevailing practice of case records being filed afresh in the Supreme Court. 

When this process gets fully functional those wanting to file petitions in the top court will only have to briefly put in writing the grounds on which they challenge an order. 

Advocate A Saravanan, while hailing the digitising process as litigant-friendly, said, “besides being eco-friendly, the move will bring about transparency pertaining to the date of filing, court fees and so on. But at the same time care should be taken that the security of the documents filed is taken care of especially with digital theft on the rise.”