I am thankful to Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India for making a reference to the efforts made in structuring a system which can enable legal institutions to make full use of Information Technology. I am also thankful to the SCAORA for giving me this opportunity to express the concept which has grown out of my experiences for over a period of 16 years in the field of application of IT to law.
When one talks of Electronic Filing System (EFS), the image that comes to mind is of yet another computer-based technological advancement. A shift from paper-based filing to filing through an electronic medium, more or less, a purely functional innovation or change. Beyond this we do not apply our mind any further, as we do not feel any need for it. But there is, infact, much more to EFS, than merely a technological innovation as its ramifications for us as advocates go beyond the ritual of filing. As material stake-holders in development and growth of judicial institution we must be prepared to position ourselves to derive maximum benefit from this change and we cannot derive any benefit from it unless we first develop a full understanding of EFS and also be aware of the fact that EFS is an initial step towards the establishment of a Case Judgment and Statute Information Management System i.e. CJISMS supporting a fully functional E-Court.
Just to risk a short digression, I was thinking last night about the implications of Nainital being the chosen place to discuss this crucial change. The word `Nainital itself gave me the clue. `Nain in Hindi means `eyes and `Taal means `rhythm. Therefore, Nainital tells us that if we have to be in rhythm with the changing times, we must set our `eyes on the future. `Nain and `Taal. If we do not get into rhythm with the changing times, we will have to face the music. Keeping in view the global challenges in legal services that we are going to face, since India is a signatory to GATS i.e. General Agreement on Trades in Services,. we must, today itself, position ourselves in a manner, that like in computer software, in Law IT field also, we should be able to play a leadership role in the global market place, banking on our formidable manpower resources in legal field. Let us now develop a full understanding of EFS, what ramifications it has for us and how we are going to manage our affairs as we are going to grow with it.
The Backdrop
In the age of internet, courts in India with the help of National Information Center (NIC) took a giant leap in 1994 and started providing cause list, orders, statutes and other data on the web for free access by the users. The judgments available on the net have a nominal price tag, but we hope that it will soon disappear and dissemination of public information, which has already consumed public money, will be available free of any charges.
Electronic Filing System (EFS) is one of the first crucial steps in the journey of Indian judicial system towards e-age which is finally going to culminate into fully functional E-courts all over the country upto trial court level. The ultimate ideal of E-courts is delivery of justice in a paperless environment where all documents, pleadings, cause lists and judgements are generated and stored on e-media. Oral evidence will be recorded and arguments will be heard using video conferencing facility. All this data will be instantaneously and simultaneously available as referred to by the Chief Justice of India on-line, on time, all the time to one and all on electronic media through appropriate structuring.
Though we wish to have a quantum jump and have moved ahead a bit but we have everything on paper today the working is still all on paper. Data placed on the web currently is only an e-copy of the hard copy data, which is placed in files, which constitute the record of the Court. From paper to screen, from pen to keys and from shuffling the papers to scrolling the data is a long journey involving development of skills and aptitude amongst judges, advocates, court officers, supporting staff and para-legals. E-Courts cannot be established by mere technological applications. The overall quality and structure of services being delivered will have to be significantly enhanced to achieve this goal. Because, in the ultimate analysis we must understand that the litmus test of any growth or development is measured by the improvement in the satisfaction rate of the end-users.
Merely automating a process or function, by using technology applications is not going to improve performance, if that function is not structured appropriately or is infact not what is required of the institution or it users. The critical issue of investment in technology is to ensure a linkage to wider strategic and operational issues. If thousand of man-hours are going to be spent by high-tech entrepreneurs and registry of Courts will be working 14 hours a day to improve information technology infrastructure, some time must be spent on the effect of information behaviour. There is a need to evolve a sufficient mature practice to represent the holistic or `joined up view of the improvement and direction of e-Courts and as crucial stakeholders in the system we must be in a position to be a part of this process and may be, to guide the process of change itself in a manner as to derive maximum benefit and value from it. J. Bird in his article `Its all IT to me emphasised- Too often they i.e. (Senior Manager or Politicians) fall in love with technological innovation which has no practical use in the real world.
E-Courts will only grow alongwith the evolution of human resources connected with the judicial system. Establishment of e-courts in a phased manner will require:
Structuring a proper electronic network system.
Supporting the structure by necessary amendments in the statutes.
Creation of or up-grading the e-infrastructure.
Providing and imparting training to all those associated with it.
Working of EFS EFS Phase - I
In the first phase of implementation of EFS the Supreme Court is required to give a unique electronic ID to each AOR who will also be provided an e-mail ID @ SCAORA.com on which all official communications can be made by the Registry of the Courts.
By using the Electronic ID and a password the AORs from their offices or any where in the world can access the Case, Judgment, Information, and Statutes Management System (CJISMS) for the purposes of both filing and retrieving data. Those who do not have necessary infrastructure and hard-ware in-house will be able to access EFS facility from EFS kiosks setup by SCAORA. Others AORs and litigants `in person may still continue to use the filing counter facility provided by the Courts, where counter clerk will use the same operational system, but, there will be queues and delays. It is like getting a railway ticket while operating from home or getting it at the reservation counter after tasting heat and dust.
An AOR may have to file a caveat, petition, appeal, IA along with the petition or appeal or IA in a pending matter. For filing the Caveat the AOR will have to enter
Name of the High Court for which a drop down list will be provided.
Date of Judgement
Name of Judges in the impugned judgment for which again a dropdown list will be provided
Name and Address of petitioners.
Name and Address of Respondents.
As soon as the data is entered , the AOR will receive an auto response on the e-mail giving a message to the effect that the:
Caveat has been electronically registered. Kindly file the hard copy of the same, along with vakalatnama in the filing Counter Affidavit within next 2 working days, failing which the electronic registration will stand deleted. Once the Advocate on records get their digital signatures and their clients registered, the Vakalatnama can be filed electronically. The court fees can be electronically accepted by Courts and debited to the Bank Account of the Advocates on Record.
Thereafter the AOR will have to file the hard copies in the filing counter. There will be no need for the Supreme Court Registry to input the data already fed in by the AOR for the second time. Registry will however cross check the data entered by AORs at their end. The filing of the hard copies will disappear once the judges and advocates become fully adept to working on computer screen.
For filing of the petition, the AOR can carry out caveat check and limitation check on line in the same manner as already referred to earlier. Necessary information will have to be entered on line by the AOR including the statute and the subjects covered. A drop down list of statutes and subjects will be provided. Once the data is entered, the AORs will have to hyperlink the index of the paper book. This index will be updated from time to time by the registry when the Court orders are passed, counter or rejoinders or additional documents are filed and will be available to the advocates on records simultaneously on-line, on time, all the time.
After filing of the hard copy of the petitions or appeals at the filing counter alongwith the e-response on scrutiny of the defects, the registry will hyperlink the defects to the file and an e-mail will also be sent to the AOR along with the list of defects.
After curing of the defects, the SLP will be numbered. The moment the SLP is numbered, the date, Court no. and Item no. will be generated like the reservation ticket and e-mailed to the AOR. This will help the AOR and clients to pre-arrange their affairs.
This data will help in automatic preparation of the cause lists. After the list is out the AOR can enter the appearances of the Senior Advocate and Associate Advocates on line, which will be cross checked by the Court Masters at the time of hearing of the matters.
The orders, signed orders or judgements will be made available on the net and e-mailed to the AORs. The orders of dismissal and notices can also be dispatched via electronic media and will be fully operational after CJI-SMS comes into operation and all High Courts are also linked using a uniform structure.
EFS Phase-II
After the EFS becomes operational in all the High Courts and the initial problems faced in the implementation are overcome and the data of the cases disposed by the High Courts are also available on the electronic media, the AOR will have to merely link the data, hyperlink the impugned judgement and all the judgements on which reliance is being placed. The text of relevant Articles or section or statutes can also be hyperlinked to the case.
After
the Judges and the Advocates reach a certain comfort level for issuing
the technology. CJISMS-Case, Judgment, Statute Information Management
System can be introduced:
This third phase will finally lead to the development of a powerful Case, Judgement, and Statute Information Management System where only the list of dates and events, the grounds of the petition or appeal and the documents and evidence will be required to be filed on electronic media. This will be possible when the judges will be comfortable reading and thinking on computer screen. Since some of the judges in this generation itself have developed understanding and enthusiasm for use of information technology, some technological courts can be put in place immediately, where some cases of special nature can be heard and disposed off using electronic media only in a paperless environment.
Impact of EFS EFS is going to have an impact on each and every one associated with law and the Indian Legal System as a whole. The clerks, para-legals and advocates who are either parts of law firm or individual solo setups, after some rudimentary training will be in a capacity to generate data which will be also useful in their office management system. The advocates will be able to get the list of defects, indexes, office reports, notices, orders, signed orders and judgements on line on time all the time.
A major part of mechanical job executed by registry will be done by the Advocates, and will be stored in a data base to be continuously used in all the proceedings which is going to reduce mechanical work load of the registry.
Since all the matters will be automatically listed on the basis of statutes and a three level subject index the judges can in one stroke dispose of more than one matters on the same issue. This will bring about speed, uniformity and help judges to clear the arrears. The ultimate benefit of all these effort is going to reach to the end users or litigants in the form of cost effective and efficient legal services.
The Structuring
The structuring of EFS will entail a shift from text-based system to a data-based system, which involves a basic shift of technology. Database may ultimately be able to link with mobile phones using Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) as things develop and in the meanwhile may be, through the SMS i.e. Short Messaging Service. The creation of data based structure is a very cumbersome process, but once that is achieved, and believe you me , it is very much achievable, the hyper-linking, inter-inking and permutation and combination of data can produce amazing results which will significantly help in streamlining the entire judicial system affecting arrears, predictability, man power planning and above all its ultimate goal of controlling arbitrariness and discrimination and establishing a more just, neutral and equitable system. The implementation of e-courts is going to have a significant impact on the culture of the legal institution, as EFS or later on e-courts, are not going to be merely data and information retrieval systems, but they are going to be key factor in creation of knowledge itself in the legal field.
Let me pause here and give you an illustration as to how data and information leads to knowledge creation.
A train timetable provides data which must be interpreted to be useful.
A platform announcement that the next train to the desired destination is leaving in five minutes provides information having specific meaning in a given context.
The passengers realisation that the first train to reach the destination may not be the first to leave since some are stopping trains and others express depends on knowledge i.e. a more generally applicable model based on insight and experience.
Data and information are vital resources, but it is the superior knowledge that produces the more effective decision and action.
Similarly, proper structuring of legal data and organizing and disseminating legal information, will provide tremendous scope for law persons to create knowledge beneficial to them and to the system as a whole.
The structuring of the EFS has to be based on a CJI-SMS i.e. Case, Judgement Information and Statute Management System. CJI-SMS will finally interlink the data of cases pending and judgement delivered by Supreme Court, High Courts and Trial Courts, the data on statutes enacted by Parliament and State Assemblies and, the data relating to Advocates. It will enable Trial Court judges in the Country to know the latest statutes and the latest judgements on any subject and issues on line on time, all the time and for the Chief Justice of India to know, the matters filed by and decided by any and every District Judge or High Court Judges anywhere in the country if he so desires. This will also enable the collegium under the current system of judicial appointment to have concrete tools to monitor evaluate and assess the performance and quality of judges and advocates for the purposes of elevations, as till this time the only method available could at best be described as informal, based on reference and personal impressions.
Supporting the structures:
Process of change also invariably affects other structures related with the institution, which are required to be adjusted and modified to synchronize with the change. Union and State Governments are major litigants they are one of the parties in all criminal, tax, service, land acquisition, tenancy and land laws matters which will roughly add upto 85 to 90% of litigation. Thus government advocates will have to properly equip themselves to effectively make e-courts vision pssible. These related structures/issues would also include:
Amendment of Civil Procedure Code, Supreme Court Rules, 1966 and several other related procedural statutes/rules.
Introduction of EFS paper in AOR Examination.
SCAORA to open EFS kiosks.
Proper training curriculum and facilities
Creation and up-gradation of infrastructure:
It is time to deal with the legal institution as a whole with judges from Trial Court to Supreme Court constituting one pillar, Advocate from Trial Court to Supreme Court forming the second, a spate of statutes and law reports as the third and forth pillars respectively. The common object of the four pillars it to solidly support structures to improve efficiency by reducing amount of wasted time and duplicating of efforts which involves energy and costs and needs to be saved.
Training
Resistance to change is ingrained in every institution and legal institution is no exception. Resistance to change is also directly proportionate to the level of effort that is required to adopt the change at the individual level and the ultimate resistance comes from the redundancy factor i.e. individuals whose roles either become totally redundant or at least get substantially reduced. Resistance also comes from those individuals who become redundant due to their inability to cross over to new structures unless the environment give them no choice but to adopt the change. Again, change and typically technology based change, the kind of which we are contemplating here, destroys the hierarchy and the younger and the lower down in hierarchy in an institution who can better adopt to change acquire an edge over the others. Ultimately when the benefits of change are substantial, the resistance is required to be leveled out. Therefore, the E-Courts will grow with proper training and will be ultimately accepted as the system because they:
will be less cumbersome than the existing system.
will consume less time i.e. the speed of doing a work will be much faster and consume less energy.
will be more accurate i.e. will commit less errors.
will consume less money-will be cost effective-for example even if authorised copy of all judgements of High Court under appeal are available free on net and are accepted in electronic format it will save around Rs. 3 Crores for the litigants, which figure is calculated on the basis of an average of 30,000 petitions filed in Supreme Court every year and an average judgment is of 10 pages and on an average ten copies are prepared costing @ Rs. 10 each.
Will reduce discretion, discrimination and arbitrariness and would ultimately help people to develop from manual workers to thinking individual
Conclusion
Persons involved with legal system are yet not equipped at least psychologically to read, appreciate and think while looking at the screen of a computer. Most of us are also not very adept at keying in, typing down or editing data using a keyboard faster than we can do it on paper using a pen. The comfort level of the judges, advocates, officers of the court and registry will have to be kept in mind while introducing any new system which can only be achieved by proper structuring and training.
It is a well-acknowledged fact that judiciary is the most conservative institution of governance and it requires a great deal of internal trust and confidence to embark on a new venture of any kind or to introduce any change. A slight disturbance in paradigm, it is feared, may create repercussions of such wide ranging dimensions that would introduce uncertainty and ambiguities, making legal system more obscure. The value and sanctity of judicial system is so profound that it cannot be tinkered with. Therefore, when we undertake a paradigm shift, we better be sure about each and every repercussion. Any change to be introduced in judicial system has to grow from within the institution and the road map for change has to be invariably provided by the institutional insiders, which then may be later on implemented by any external agency using technology tools.
Therefore, let us embrace the EFS initiative initiated by the Chief Justice of India with open arms and open mind and to do so, let me propose, in order to be able to create an optimal system accruing best results and benefits to all the stake-holders, be it Honble judges, advocates, court officials and litigant public and also as a functional necessity, let SCAOR Association provide full assistance and support to Hon'ble the Chief Justice and his brother judges to make this dream come true. And, let us not forget, that we have in P.H. Parekh the most powerful modem developed so far to provide interconnectivity and interface between advocates and judiciary. We must exploit him fully.
Thanks to all of you for a very patient hearing. The floor is now open for questions.
Aruneshwar Gupta
June 7, 2002
All India Seminar on Judicial Reforms organised by SCAORA at Nainital - June 7 -9, 2002
