Upload Orders/Judgments Soon After Judges Sign Them, Madras HC Directs Registry [Read Order]

The Madras High Court recently directed its registry to upload judgments and orders soon after they are signed by the judges.

Justice SM Subramaniam issued this direction to address the concern raised by lawyers who brought to his notice that the certified copies of the orders/judgments are supplied by the Registry to the parties.

The judge noted the practical difficulty faced by the Registry to issue the certified copy of the orders/judgments in all cases within a short span of time. He suggested an alternative solution and said: "Soon after the original copy of the judgments/orders are signed by the respective Hon'ble Judges, the said orders/judgments are being uploaded in the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras in. Once the judgments/orders are uploaded in the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras, the same are made available for all in the public domain. The orders/judgments can be downloaded by the respective parties or by any other person."

The court also observed: "In this regard, the judgments/orders signed by the Hon'ble Judges, shall be uploaded in the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras without causing any undue delay and at the earliest possible. The respective learned counsels appearing for the parties to the lis can download the orders/judgment copies from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras and the copy of the order shall be attested with the Name and Seal of the learned counsel on record along with the enrollment number and communicate the same to all the parties concerned for implementation of the orders/judgments of this Court. In the event of communicating any such orders / judgments downloaded and printed from the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras, the authorities concerned / competent are bound to receive the same and verify the authenticity of the copy of the order with the official website of the Hon'ble High Court of Madras and thereafter, initiate action for effective implementation without any further delay."

The court added that the authorities concerned cannot reject or refuse the printed copy of the downloaded orders/judgments communicated by the respective counsels of parties.

The court also directed the Chief Secretary of all the Departments/Subordinate officials to ensure that the attested downloaded order/judgment copies received by them shall be responded properly and the officials concerned shall act based on the attested copies by verifying the same with the official website of the high court.  

Read the Order Here