digital court
The Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) will get a lesson from the Supreme Court in the use of the new Integrated Case Management and Information System (ICMIS) intended to allow full e-filing at the apex court, in a series of demonstrations organised from this Monday (10 July).
When an undertrial gets produced in court thrice a year it costs the government Rs 1,000. But now, undertrials need not be produced in courts as trial court proceedings can go ahead through video conferencing, which will help the government save Rs 100 crores per year. The facility is being installed at almost all district courts through the eProject piloted by the Supreme Court’s eCommittee headed by Justice Madan Lokur.
reported the Times of India.
All 15,000 subordinate courts will have their judgments digitised, with new judgments to be uploaded by 6pm on the day that it is handed down, law ministry sources told the Times of India.
The Karnataka high court will introduce wireless internet in six to seven months, reported the Deccan Herald.
The advocates association had made the request for a court-based wireless internet network to the registrar general, who have now started the tendering process to find a provider of the internet service.
In March, the Bangalore Mirror had reported a tender to buy 40 iPhones for judges.
The Karnataka high court in Bangalore has floated a tender to buy 40 Apple iPhone 5Cs for its judges to use. While the smartphones are the lowest end phones that the US-based company makes, they still retail for around Rs 40,000 each (and ironically are not compatible with two recently-launched Android apps that can check the court's noticeboard and causelist; lower-end Android smartphones can retail for less than Rs 10,000).
The registry also floated a tender to buy 125 kiosks, which are already present in the high court, and will in future give litigants electronic information about cases in Karnataka's lower taluk courts. (via @othlaw) [Bangalore Mirror]
Chandigarh pink slips 79 kin-counsel: The Chandigarh administration has shown the door to 79 empanelled advocates who were the kin of advocate generals, a judge, and union law minister Kapil Sibal. Now around 30 counsel are left on the UT administration’s panel [Hindustan Times]
Madras HC on SMS case update: The Madurai bench of the Madras HC will now use phone text messages to inform litigants and lawyers of the status of their cases. The service has already been successfully introduced since 23 January in the principal bench of the Madras HC [PTI]
Maha prisons to cut costs by Skype-ing inmates: The Maharashtra Prison Department will now deal with a lack of availability of “Police Escort Personnel” by producing inmates in court on internet video messaging program Skype. At the moment 54 prisons and 146 courts are linked through expensive bespoke video conferencing facilities in the state. In the last three months ending February, 2014, over 10,000 undertrials were produced before courts through video conferencing. The bill for a bespoke video conference line is around Rs 15,000 per month [DNA India]
Retd Justice Srikrishna now FPSB chair: Retired SC judge BN Srikrishna is now the chairman of the Financial Planning Standards Board India (FPSB) - India’s professional standards setting body for financial planners. Srikrishna had authored the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission and was also the chairman of the sixth central pay commission. He takes over from Dhirendra Swarup [PTI]
CCI to ease M&A compliance burden: The Competition Commission of India (CCI) is about to roll out new M&A guidelines that will reduce the regulatory compliance burden to get M&As approved for businesses and lawyers. The CCI also plans to provide assistance in “substantiative” matters in M&As [Express]
Female advocates politics post-poll fight: Female advocates part of the Indian Federation of Women Lawyers (IFWL) are fighting in the Madras HC over the locking of a room from which the IFWL functions, alleging foul play by the loser of a recent IFWL election who has allegedly taken away documents from the room [Bangalore Mirror]
Artistic Calicut lawyers: 15 Calicut Bar Council lawyers, including seven women, showcased 52 “Rhythmic Painting” works done by them at the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi Art Gallery exhibition [The Hindu]
Every HC bench strength to grow by 25%: The central government has decided to increase the judges’ strength of each high court in India by 25 per cent and has invited proposals from all chief justices on additional facilities concerning courtroom, quarters and support staff for the enhanced number of judges [TOI]
SC to consider banning red beacons outright: After its ban on the widespread ‘misuse’ of red beacon lights on cars, the Supreme Court has yesterday agreed to look into the meaning and constitutional validity of the term “high dignitaries”, as only allowing them to use the lights could be contrary to the “democratic ethos” and reflective of “Raj mentality”. Justices RM Lodha and Shiva Kirti Singh, with amicus curiae Harish Salve, will examine the arguments [Express]
Mysore DCs to become more efficient with self-service kiosks: Mysore becomes the second city in India after Bangalore to have kiosks around its district court campus, where case details can be retrieved by punching in the case number. Three kiosks were inaugurated on Sunday [TOI]. The city aims to reduce over 63 per cent of its case pendency in its ongoing Lok Adalats [Deccan Herald]
Krishna Iyer’s disdain for recusing judges: Jurisprudential luminary and retired Supreme Court justice VR Krishna Iyer commented on the rampant practice of judges recusing themselves from cases. In letters to the Kerala high court chief justice and governor he said: “Vast powers have been vested in judges under the Constitution and they are bound to adjudicate every case posted before them. That is a great duty from which they cannot retreat. Not hearing cases or declining to do justice is breach of the solemn obligation vested in them. To default or decline to exercise this sublime power is to invite impeachment by Parliament or dismissal by the President.” [TOI]
Karntaka SLSA appointment: Karnataka high court justice NK Patil has been appointed executive chairman of the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority [TOI]
Aadhar facility in Gujarat jails: Gujarat high court has asked the state government to facilitate issuing Aadhar cards in prison, after a prisoner’s wife applied for his bail for the purpose of enabling him to apply for his Aadhar card [TOI]
PIL vs Kejriwal: The closing up of several public roads and metro stations in Delhi thanks to protests and demonstrations carried out by the newly elected Arvind Kejriwal government, has spurred a second petitioner to file a public interest litigation against the government [Mizo News]
12 new Allahabad HC judges: Four Allahabad high court lawyers and eight higher judicial service officers have taken oath as Allahabad HC additional judges [TOI]
Legally India speaks to techy lawyer and DHC Android app developer Abhimanyu Chopra.
Delhi’s Saket district court took the lead among Indian district courts on 31 July in allowing emailed service of process.
Android friendly SCI: The Supreme Court of India has released an Android smartphone app to view a replica of the Supreme’s Court’s case display board. The display board in the SC indicates the item numbers of matters being heard across all courtrooms at any given point of time. It’s pretty basic, but seems to do what it says it does [To install on your Android device go to Settings –> Security, and check ‘Unknown Sources’. Then click this link from your phone: SCI Android app via SC e-committee]
Gujarat miffs Lokayukta appointee: The Gujarat government has cleared the appointment of former Gujarat high court justice RA Mehta as the state’s first Lokayukta in 10 years, after it lost a two-year long battle in the high court and the Supreme Court against his appointment. Mehta, however, has declined the post citing foul play by the government leading to loss of his credibility [TOI/TOI]
Dhir & Dhir promos: Dhir & Dhir Associates promoted five principal associates to associate partner and hired a new associate partner. Sachin Gupta and Jayshree Shukhla from the litigation team, Sandeep Gupta from the corporate restructuring and insolvency team, Santosh Pandey from the infrastructure practice and Girish Rawat from banking finance & capital markets were promoted, while Bibhakar Mishra was hired in the dispute resolution team [Bar & Bench]
Bombay e-court: The Bombay high court will inaugurate its first ever e-court on 15 August accepting all petitions through e-filing. This court will initially accept filing of company matters [PTI]
Lawschool caste violence: A student in the Government Law College Coimbatore was injured after the college failed to check the hoisting of flags on campus paying homage to various caste leaders by student groups. The move had divided the student community and the unease led to violence [TOI]
The DoJ project to computerise 14,249 courts is 85 per cent complete, according to an RTI response.
The Delhi high court has launched an online payment system for litigants and lawyers to pay court fees.
The system will allow court fee stamps to be bought online.
The high court’s computer committee will now examine also rolling it out to Delhi’s district courts. [The Hindu]
Delhi High Court has become the first court in India aiming to go paper-less today with the adoption of a pilot e-court project for all dealings in the court of Justice S Ravindra Bhat.