Bombay high court to go hi-tech with digital records

MUMBAI: All documents that reach the Bombay high court will soon be scanned and stored digitally. In a move that will save time and bring in transparency , the high court will allow litigants and lawyers to submit their petitions on a pen drive along with the hard copy.

Work is already on in the HC building to instal high-speed scanners that can scan 120-160 pages in less than a minute. After March, affidavits and documents pertaining to a case will be copied by these super-fast scanners and stored in a digital format, thus allowing court officers to access the information at the click of a mouse.

On the ground floor of the HC, a room with conveyor belts, computers and scanners is being readied where documents will need to be deposited. These will be scanned, e-filed and circulated amongst the various departments of the judiciary.

Pointing out that the Bombay HC is among the first in the country to get "super tech-savvy" , a senior court officer said the "aim is to bring in transparency in filing and numbering of petitions, their movement and status updates". "The exercise will rule out delays due to misplaced documents," added the officer.

State information and technology secretary Rajesh Agarwal said, "Though the Delhi high court had introduced e-filing of documents, the Bombay high court is going a step further by not only digitizing all the records, but also ensuring that most work is done online. The IT department has decided to release Rs 1.7 crore for the case management information system being implemented by the court." Agarwal added that a similar system will be introduced in Mantralaya once it is renovated . "We, too, will accept documents at the gate, scan and digitize them, before forwarding them to various departments. This will ensure that people do not have to go to various departments ," he said.

 

 

Source:::: The Times of India, 05-02-2013.