The Supreme Court on Friday through online medium streamed a live demo on e-filing of the cases in the apex court for advocates. Now, lawyers can file cases in the top court online.
Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and Justice DY Chandrachud attended the online event.
Addressing the e-meeting, CJI Bobde said that the e-filing has received impetus due to COVID-19 crisis and not entirely due to the court's dynamism.
"Transition to digitisation was not easy, I would like to say with a tinge of pride, that none of this would have been possible without Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice Chauhan, Registrars and so many more," CJI Bobde said.
"This online system, created by us outlines-access to justice, simple and inclusive technology, inexpensive, upholds Rule of Law, artificial intelligence centric, information can be extracted within minutes," he said.
In January, around 1 lakh cases comprising approximately 26.84 lacs pages were transmitted from District Courts and High Courts in India to the Supreme Court, the CJI said and added that this will be tackled very well via digitised systems.
Justice DY Chandrachud, also chairperson of e-committee of apex court, said e-filing of the cases represent a collaborative effort of the bar and the bench, aided by the Registry of the Supreme Court.
"Besides the Supreme Court, we have 17,000 courts. Overcoming the initial glitches, the deployment of video conferencing hearings have been utilised across the nation. Patna High Court has dealt with 450 cases via video conferencing. Trial courts have dealt with lacs of cases," said Justice Chandrachud.
He said that the digitalisation will factor in the issues of lack of technological frameworks in the hands of lawyers and added that everyone must enhance TEST values, where TEST stands for Trust, Empathy, Sustainability, and Transparency.
"Supreme Court's proposed e-filing procedure has factored in the technological limitations of several lawyers, and an attempt has been made for creating an inclusive system," Justice Chandrachud said.
"Some features of e-filings are it will be available 24/7, digitalised objection(s) scrutiny mechsm, e-payment of Court fees, incorporating digital signatures, dashboard - will be a comprehensive e-folder of all individual data of respective lawyers," he added.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) said, "I am delighted at the efforts of the Supreme Court to digitise its functioning. These are times of crisis and we have to rise in these times of crisis. Today, the people of India need the healing touch your lordships."
"Present times demand a greater vigil by the Judiciary." He added that independent bar and independent bench form the backbone of a democracy. "On our part, we too have been working in this direction. We are making efforts for digitising the justice system," Dave added.
Shivaji Jadhav, President of Supreme Court Advocate-on-Record Association (SCAORA) addressing the meeting said that the consensus among the bar that virtual courts are a necessity, however, must not replace physical hearings.
"Any change is always difficult, however, we will slowly and steadily get used to it. We are all in this together," Jadhav said.
( With inputs from ANI )