Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud unveiled the ‘e-filing 2.0’ and launched the ‘e-Sewa Kendra and Facilitation Centre’ in the Main Building Complex of the Supreme Court on Friday.
The CJI launched the two new services before commencing the mentionings for the day.
He said the facilities would remain available for all lawyers 24X7. As per the CJI, they have also started two facilitation centres, pointing out that the initiatives were aimed at hand holding the lawyers, who did not have these facilities and services.
The CJI appealed to all lawyers present in the court to use e-filing. The Advocates hailed the decision and thanked the CJI for taking care of their official needs.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that it was only due to the efforts made by the CJI and other Supreme Court judges that they were able to get rid of that mental block.
One can walk-in to the e-sewa kendra not only to file cases through e-filing software, but can also avail other services to know the status about cases from any court or tribunal across the country, noted the CJI.
He said the e-Sewa Kendra would also have two dedicated VC rooms, from where the parties can appear virtually. An e-filing facilitation centre has also been established in the Additional Building Complex, so that the lawyers could conveniently file cases, he added.
As per the CJI, the whole idea was to bridge the digital divide and have a more citizen-centric approach and services.
The Chief Justice of India has long been a proponent of paperless filing and have been encouraging lawyers to use technology.
In the recent Constitution Bench hearings in the GNCTD-LG, Shiv Sena and same-sex marriage cases, the CJI had strictly told the lawyers not to use physical paper-books and to submit all documents to the court electronically.
A Bench led by the CJI had recently deprecated the practice of NCLAT, whereby physical filing of appeals has been made mandatory in addition to e-filing of appeals.
Besides e-filing, the e-Seva Kendra offers services such as filing of application, appeal, payment of fees for RTI
Online portal, e-Copying, online application for certified copies, inquiry counter for case status and next date of hearing, among others.
The applicants can enquire about the status of cases pending/disposed in any court across the length and breadth
of the country.
Self-service kiosks were likely to be deployed in the future at the e-Sewa Kendra.
The new-launched e-filing software
enables the Advocates-on-Record to file fresh cases, counter-affidavit,
replies, applications and documents from any place as long as the user has access
to a computer system and an internet connection.
The new e-filing system will
facilitate paperless filing and save resources, including time and cost ordinarily utilised in physical filing.
Printing charges on all filings made through e-filing modes have been waived of, so as to encourage Advocates, Party-in-Person, and other stakeholders for adopting the mechanism of electronic filing.
Steps have been taken by the Registry of the Supreme Court to create
awareness and impart training and knowledge to Advocates, registered court
clerks, and Registry officials. The awareness program will continue till July 31 and assistance shall be provided in e-filing of cases to Advocates, Party-in-Person at the newly established e-Sewa Kendra, Main Building Complex, and e-filing Facilitation Centre, Additional Building Complex, Supreme Court of India.
While interacting with the advocates on the occasion, the Chief Justice of India encouraged all advocates, litigants and citizens to optimally use the services being provided at the e-Sewa Kendra and also to use the e filing software version 2.0 to utilise technology and minimise the use of paper, apart from saving time and costs.