Sanika Deshpande-
Published On: October 17, 2021 at 13:28 IST
Supreme Court of India’s e-Committee directed the High Courts, by sending a letter, to ensure that all the petitions and filings by the Government are done by e-filing.
This new rule will be coming into effect from January 1, 2022.
The e-Committee headed by Justice DY Chandrachud said that the matters such as “Suits for money recovery, complaints under Section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act, applications for maintenance, petitions for divorce by mutual consent, bail applications etc can also be considered for e-filing.”
For other litigants including the individual persons filing petitions and applications e-filing will be “Compulsory for certain categories of matters such as revenue, tax, arbitration, commercial disputes and any other category as deemed fit by the concerned High Court from January 1.”
“Petitions, appeals and revisions against judgments/ orders of subordinate courts should also be compulsorily through e-fling mode from January 1, 2022,” the Committee Advisory said.
Committee Advisory also said that, “In case of e-filing of an appeal or revision, the required record of the trial court can be digitally linked with the appellate/ revisional court.”
Till now, everyone had the option of filing petitions & applications physically in the court along with the e-copies.
This decision came after the Judiciary decided moving towards digitisation of courts and also reducing the impact on environment because of the use of paper.
The e-filing system is also better as it makes it much easier to find specific documents from large books.
The High Courts will have to frame the rules regarding the categories which will be included for e-filing.
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