CUTTACK: The e-filing version 3.0 - an advanced version of e-filing software - was inaugurated in the Orissa High Court (HC) here on Saturday.
Developed by NIC under the aegis of the e-Committee, Supreme Court of India, it will make case filing in an electronic mode far more convenient and effective for lawyers and litigants compared to the previous version. Orissa High Court is the first HC to implement this version of e-filing in the country.
This new version will also be available in various district and taluka-level courts of Odisha. As of now, district and taluka courts of only three states Odisha, Kerala and Maharashtra have implemented this e-filing software whose adoption is being spearheaded by the Supreme Court’s e-Committee.
Two other significant initiatives of the Orissa High Court - Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres & Virtual Courtrooms and Odisha Judicial Workflow Automation System were also inaugurated.
Virtual courtrooms aim to introduce the concept of hybrid hearing in district courts to enable conducting trials regardless of where the judge, advocates, witness or the accused are present. This would enable official witnesses to be able to depose before courts at different locations through video conferencing without having to hamper their usual duties.
Vulnerable Witness Deposition Centres and Virtual courtrooms shall be available in 15 districts of the State - Angul, Bhadrak, Balangir, Cuttack, Jagatsinghpur, Kalahandi, Kendrapara, Bhubaneswar, Koraput, Nayagarh, Nuapada, Nabarangpur, Malkangiri, Sambalpur and Sonepur.
Inaugurating the initiatives, Chief Justice S Muralidhar dwelled on the positive experience of utilising virtual courtrooms in four districts opened earlier this year in order to overcome barriers of distance and time for examining official witnesses which led to providing virtual courtrooms in the 13 vulnerable witness deposition centres opened on Saturday.
Delivering the inaugural address, Chairperson of the Supreme Court’s e-Committee Dr Justice DY Chandrachud hailed the initiative spearheaded by Chief Justice S Muralidhar with the support of the State government.
Speaking about e-filing 3.0 and vulnerable witness deposition centres, Justice Chandrachud said that both these initiatives put a human face on technology.
Highlighting the emphasis on digital inclusion and the need to provide witness centric measures, Justice Chandrachud also mentioned that having vulnerable witness deposition centres marks the accomplishment of an important objective for the benefit of the witnesses without whose uninfluenced testimony there cannot be any rule of law.
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