Supreme Court's proposed e-filing procedure has factored in the technological limitations (File)
Lawyers can now file petitions in the Supreme Court online as Chief Justice of India SA Bobde rolled out the e-filing facility on Friday. Litigation can be filed beyond court hours using the new software, which also allows to pay the court fee.
A live demo of the new system was organised today via video conferencing. CJI SA Bobde and Justice DY Chandrachud attended the event.
Addressing the video conference, Justice Bobde said the new system received impetus because of the coronavirus pandemic and not entirely due to the court's dynamism.
"E-filing received impetus because of the virus not because of our dynamism. Every kind of trial cannot be tried by video conferencing. But the feature common to both is e-filing," he said.
Supreme Court judges, who were conducting hearings on video conference from home amid the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown, resumed hearings in courtrooms from Tuesday. The respondents still do not go to court and join in through video conference. The lawyers will be arguing from their chambers starting next week.
The software has been designed by a technical team led by Yashwant Goswami, one of the top officers of the Supreme Court.
Pointing out the need to change mindsets with regard to new technology, the Chief Justice said," We have to accept the present situation and change our mindset. Eventually it must settle down to a system of new and old. There are cases which must have to be heard in congregation".
He further said that in the future, Artificial Intelligence can prove to be useful in deciding cases. " In future, AI will be useful in deciding cases...if AI had been used, the Ayodhya case would have been decided without delay".
Justice Chandrachud, the chairperson of e-committee of the Supreme Court, said the procedure has been developed keeping in mind the technological limitations of some lawyers.
"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," he said.
"Some features of e-filings are it will be available 24/7, digitalised objection(s) scrutiny mechanism, e-payment of Court fees, incorporating digital signatures, dashboard - will be a comprehensive e-folder of all individual data of respective lawyers," he added.
With inputs from ANI