Delhi HC directs district judges to prioritize cases for digitalization

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The Delhi High Court has instructed principal district and sessions judges to create a list of the types of cases or records from district courts that need to be prioritized for digitalization, reported the PTI.

According to PTI, the high court clarified that it is not mandatory to digitalize every minor case before weeding out old records.

Justice Dinesh Kumar Sharma stated in an order issued on June 1 and signed on July 11, "The Principal District and Sessions Judge (Headquarter), in consultation with all other Principal District and Sessions Judges and Officers In-charge (OICs) of record rooms, shall determine the category of cases that require digitization and 'petty cases' that do not require digitization."

This order was made in response to an application filed by the court registry seeking clarifications on a previous order issued in January 2017.

In the January 2017 order, the high court had directed that "before trial court records are destroyed under the Delhi High Court Rules, information should be obtained from the respective appellate court regarding the appeal status of the trial court judgment."

The court had further stated, "In cases where a response is received indicating the pendency of an appeal, the trial court records should not be destroyed and should be preserved. Even in cases where no response is received by the appellate court regarding the appeal, the records should be scanned and saved in digitized form."

During the recent application hearing, advocate Rajat Aneja, representing the administrative side of the high court, argued that the accumulation of records due to non-weeding is causing significant problems. Aneja also requested the court to issue directions for smooth digitization and record maintenance.

The high court's information technology committee sought clarifications on the 2017 order, including whether the directions applied to civil or criminal cases and whether trial court records that have already completed the statutory preservation period need to be mandatorily digitized. It also inquired about the digitization of minor cases such as traffic challans.

With the assistance of advocate Aneja and judicial officer Abhilash Malhotra, currently serving as the Central Project Coordinator (CPC) in the high court, the court issued certain directions. It clarified that the earlier directions were limited to criminal matters but have now been extended to civil matters as well.

"The records, unless of historical importance and after completing the statutory preservation period, may be weeded out as per existing rules," the court stated.

Justice Sharma further mentioned, "The principal district and sessions judge (HQ), in consultation with all other principal district and sessions judges and the chairman (IT & Digitization) of Delhi District Courts, shall prepare a comprehensive list of the types of cases or records that need to be prioritized for digitization."

The high court stated that in cases where an appeal or revision petition is filed in the high court and the trial court record (TCR) is required for efficient adjudication, such case data should be made available by the high court registry to the district court.

These directions are to be circulated to all district judges.

(PTI)