The Delhi High Court plans to start e-courts by next month to reduce paperwork and turn eco-friendly. With this,lawyers and litigants can stop carrying bulky files and start using a pen drive or a compact disc. Court proceedings,from the stage of filing a petition to getting copies of judgments,will be paperless. The necessity of e-courts has arisen due to shortcomings of a paper-based system like storage,maintenance and wastage of a lot of paper, said Justice B D Ahmed,in-charge of the e-court committee,during the presentation of the project to lawyers and judges on Thursday. Were also working on the project in which live court proceedings would also be seen on the website, Justice Ahmed said,adding the project will be first started in one court and will soon be followed in all other courts,including the five district courts in the Capital. The recording of evidence in any case will be done electronically. We are planning to have centres across the Capital from where a person can record his statement and the court can see it via video-conferencing. This will help save a lot of time not only of litigants but also the court, said Justice S Muralidhar,another member of the e-court committee. He noted that the new system will also help put a halt to frequent adjournments by lawyers. With the help of e-courts,warrants,court notices and other documents can be sent via e-mail to the party or the post office concerned from where a service slip will be sent back confirming the receipt. Well also ensure that courts provide adequate facilities to lawyers while they argue their case using the laptops. Judges will also be given a touch screen handbook which they can read it like a file, Justice Ahmed said. Were also planning to introduce a system where court fees can be paid online so that the entire work is done at the click of a mouse, Justice Ahmed said.
