Advocate Petitions Delhi HC For Better Management Of Courts’ Websites, Told To Approach HC Bar Ass’n

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday told an advocate seeking better management of its website and that of the district courts to approach the High Court Bar Association for redressal of his grievance.

A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V Kameswar Rao asked advocate Amit Sahni to place his grievance before the Delhi High Court Bar Association which will look into the issue of proper and effective management of the high court website and that of the subordinate courts.

Aggrieved at the long delays in uploading of daily orders on courts’ websites and absence of important basic information such as judges on leave, case status etc., Sahni had moved the high court. He said this leads to harassment of public at large.

Sahni had urged the court to issue appropriate directions to the Registrar to develop redressal mechanism for effective and proper management of websites and for putting in place a mechanism for redressal of complaints in case daily orders are not uploaded in time.

This is not the first time Sahni has taken up the issue of mismanagement of courts’ websites.

Back in the year 2015, he had moved the high court seeking directions for effective and proper management of the official websites of district courts and prayed that daily orders, cause lists, information about judges on leave, case status and other crucial information be updated on the website in the larger interest of society.

A division bench had then ordered that a copy of the petition be placed before the computer committee and thereafter, disposed of the same while noting that the suggestions given by Sahni have been considered by the committee.

The court had ordered him to e-mail any suggestions he might have in future to the high court with a copy marked to the Registrar (Computer).

Faced with similar delays in getting daily orders and other information on the website still, Sahni was forced to move the high court again.

In his instant petition, he said, “When the Orders are not uploaded, the same lead to unnecessary harassment to the public at large, apart from burdening the overly occupied Inspection Branch, Copying Branch etc., which can be avoided otherwise”.

Sahni had moved an RTI application in September wherein he had sought to know if there is any mechanism for making a complaint, in case the staff of the court concerned does not upload the orders.

The response to the RTI query revealed the absence of any such mechanism.

He said the high court had recently put in place a scheme for the resolution of various issues—functional, procedural and logistical—facing the Bar and the Bench at the level of the district courts and at the high court.

“Similarly, the present issue for developing redressal mechanism for the purpose of sorting out the grievance regarding the orders, which are not uploaded, is the need of the time and the same would not only lessen the burden of the overly occupied Copying Branch Or Certified Branch to read the contents of such order(s), which is not uploaded but also give huge relief to the public at large,” he said.