E-Filing Module of the Supreme Court of India
Why E-Filing Systems and E-Courts Fail to Deliver Justice in India
The excerpts from the Research Report: Defective E-Filing Systems of Indian Courts are given below. You can also download and read the full report.
One of the reasons for chaotic e-filing platforms is the inconsistent use of GUIs. The interfaces provided by the Supreme Court, high courts, and lower courts are totally different while they are supposed to serve the same objective of accepting legal documents online and presenting them in the courts.
The purpose of digital interfaces is supposed to provide an easy way to the advocates and particularly litigants who have little knowledge of technology and who are not quite familiar with the judicial processes.
They should be able to convey their case in simple language and present it digitally in the court either through a PDF file or a hyperlinked webpage or even presentation slides including exhibits, photographs, video links, and so on. But the inconsistent web interfaces and complex filing mechanisms for different courts confuse the litigants completely.
The defective e-filling systems also show random errors written in confusing language. Therefore, the users are not able to file their cases smoothly in courts.
The e-filing platforms show random and wrongly written error messages, even when the user – litigant or advocate – has entered their details correctly. On the High Court of Delhi site, for example, the error message says, “Your Login ID could not be generated due to some technical reason. Please try again.”
Since the backend system and the error messaging database have not been properly configured, the user gets a confusing message of “some technical reason.” The user can keep trying repeatedly, but this error message will persist and thus the user will not be able to file the case online.
It is the height of stupidity that the e-filing system of the High Court of Delhi is asking users to file their cases on A4-size paper, while the digital courts are supposed to be paperless. Although this research report is giving examples of the High Court of Delhi, the e-filing systems of high courts in other states are expected to be equally defective.
It appears that the people who are handling backend systems and frontend interfaces are clueless about the purpose of e-filing and virtual courts. They are also not aware of the software implementation process which includes dry run, parallel run, and live run. The e-filing systems have been carelessly thrown out for public use without testing them properly.
The Supreme Court e-filing system interface is totally different from the interfaces of high courts and lower courts. The ignorant court officials are deliberately confusing the users who want to file their cases online and enjoy the facility of digital / e-courts. As a result, the e-filing and e-courts are not working despite false claims made by the top judicial officers including the Chief Justice.
You can click here to download and read the research report which is also given below.
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