Vision Of Trust, Empathy, Sustainibility & Transparency Will Steer Through : CJI SA Bobde & Justice DY Chandrachud Inaugurate SC E-Filing Module

In a momentous step towards comprehensive digitisation of the Top Court, the Supreme Court on Friday inaugrated the online e-filing module via a live telecast.

The telecast of this live demo circumscribed a step-by-step understanding of how to use the e-filing processes.

Chief Justice SA Bobde & Justice DY Chandrachud (who also heads the E-filing committee of the SC) along with SCBA President, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave & SCAORA President Mr. Shivaji Jadhav attended the session.

 Mr. Shivaji Jadhav, President SCAORA began the vote of thanks:-

"One must not forget the foot soldiers of the Registry [Of the Hon'ble Supreme Court] who are readily discharging their duty, even in these trying times" - Mr. Jadhav

"Consensus among the bar that Virtual courts are a necessity, however, must not replace physical hearings. Any change is always difficult, however, we will slowly and steadily get used to it. We are all in this together" - Mr. Jadhav

Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave highlighted the need for a "greater vigil" by the judiciary in these trying times.

"Independent bar and independent bench form the backbone of a democracy. On our part, we too have been working in this direction. We are making efforts for digitising the justice system" Dave.

Following this, Justice DY Chandrachud described the online module as "a collaborative effort of the bar and the bench, aided by the Registry of the Supreme Court".

He added that the module is based on the "T-E-S-T Model" which strives to achieve Trust, empathy, sustainibility & transparency.

Notably, it was emphasised that e-filings shall be made available 24/7, to which CJI SA Bobde added in a lighter vein "don't know if that will be good, but it will be accesible 24/7".

Justice DY Chandrachud stated:

"We have devised:

1) E-filings : Available 24/7;

2) Digitalised Objection(s) scrutiny mechanism;

3) E-payment of Court fees;

4) Incorporating Digital Signatures;

5) Dashboard - will be a comprehensive e-folder of all individual data of respective lawyers" 

In furtherance to this, Justice CJI SA Bobde stated that the online digitised e-filing system has been devised keeping in mind the principles of "Access to justice, Simple & inclusive technology, Inexpensive, Upholds Rule of Law, Artificial Intelligence centric, Information can be extracted within minutes"

CJI SA Bobde also pointed out that the system had been devised at the behest of the Supreme Court and was spearheaded by Justice DY Chandrachud & Justice (Retd.) Chauhan.

Lastly, Secratary General of the Supreme Court did an extensive demo and a step-by-step introduction to access this E-module.