Kerala HC Goes Hi-tech, e-filing from 57 Jails to Begin on July 1

KOCHI:
The Kerala High Court has turned hi-tech, with an e-filing facility from 57 jails in the state, for prisoners to file appeals and other applications seeking judicial remedies before it, set to become operational from July 1.

Hitherto, all such applications and appeals were done in paper form and then forwarded to the High Court for further action.

It was Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar, after observing that the paper version is continuing, who asked officials for options to see if this can be done electronically.

Things started to move, and a meeting was conducted by the Registrar-General of the High Court with the officials of the Prisons & Correctional Services Department.

Following this, a decision was taken to extend the e-filing facility of the High Court to the prison authorities.

It was also decided to devise a standard operating procedure (SOP) that is to be followed upon switching to the new system. In the wake of this, two separate SOPs were prepared by the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KeLSA) and the IT Directorate of the High Court, explaining the procedures to be followed while adopting the new system.

The SOP prepared by KeLSA intends to establish uniformity across the jails with respect to the service of lawyers dealing with prison inmates’ cases, besides transmission of necessary documents for appeal to the High Court Legal Services Committee (HCLSC) and other ancillary matters.

The SOP prepared by the IT Directorate, High Court, aims to streamline the online filing of jail appeals using the CMS login credentials provided to the officer in charge of the jail.

Currently, login credentials have been created for all 57 jails in the state in the Case Management System (CMS), handled by the High Court.

Now with the Chief Justice approving both SOPs, the order came asking to implement the e-filing from the 57 jails with effect from July 1.