Supreme Court will go paperless from July 3

NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi and Chief Justice J S Khehar on Wednesday launched an ambitious scheme for complete digitisation of litigation in all courts, which in the first phase promises paperless filing of appeals in the Supreme Court from July 3.

Modi congratulated the CJI and his team of judges for the revolutionary step. "I have come to know that several HCs have reduced vacations. This gives strength to a sense of responsibility and helps generate new hope and faith in the common man about speedy justice," he said.

Justice Khehar said the idea of court records digitisation came to him immediately after taking oath as CJI on receiving a letter from law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who had pointed out that the government had sanctioned Rs 2,130 crore for the e-court mission mode project for 2016-17.

"...till December 2016, the judiciary had spent only Rs 88 crore," the letter said. The CJI said this called for urgent need to accelerate the digitisation process as the letter signified the government's support for this project. Justice A M Khanwilkar, who is entrusted with the digitisation task after he successfully implemented it in Madhya Pradesh HC as its chief justice, said digitisation of court records through the Integrated Court Management Information System would translate into "sabka saath, sabka vikas" for litigants. He explained that under ICMIS, once a petition was filed in a court, there was no need to replicate the paper work before each appellate court.

CJI Khehar said, "Only grounds of appeal need to be filed in the SC. It will save tons of paper used in filing of appeals and greatly help the environment. The system will automatically through SMS and email inform the litigant the court fee to be paid, the date of hearing and defects if any needing rectification."