Kerala High Court Judge Speaks In Support Of Advocate Clerks' Protest Against Mandatory E-Filing

The Kerala Advocate Clerks' Association held a hunger strike yesterday on the day of Onam near the Kerala High Court to protest against the decision to implement mandatory e-filing in courts. 

Justice PV Kunhikrishnan, judge of the Kerala High Court, spoke at the protest meet in support of the clerks' cause. At the outset, he urged the clerks to not protest against the High Court, reminding them that they are also part of the High Court. He added that while changes are inevitable in all fields, some changes will create difficulties.

"I will not be a party to any program that ignores Advocate Clerks," the Judge stated.

The hunger strike was intended as a protest against the High Court's decision to implement mandatory e-filing in the lower courts across the State from the first of this month.  E-filing of all case types, excluding Final Reports by the police, had been made mandatory for all case types, including criminal cases.

The Association claimed that mandatory e-filing of documents will render the clerks jobless. They thus raised demands such as modification of Rules to permit handwritten pleadings in scanned PDF format; applications apart from Plaint or Complaint to be excluded from mandatory e-filing; physical filing to be retained alongwith e-filing; and for the implementation of e-filing in a phased manner, along with the establishment of sufficient numbers of e-Sewa Kendras. 

For a feature on digitization of the Kerala High Court, certain clerks had disclosed to LiveLaw earlier that while digitization has made the process of case filing for regular cases easier, some of the aged clerks have found it difficult to adapt to the change. The High Court itself had switched to mandatory e-filing of cases earlier. 

Justice Kunhikrishnan noted that during his stint as a lawyer, clerks had helped him in growing in his profession. 

The hunger-strike organized by the Advocate Clerks' Association of Kerala was attended by around 200 persons. Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden was also in attendance at the protest.