Delhi HC directs district judges to prioritize cases for digitalization

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 PTIAccording to PTI the high court clarified that it is not mandatory to digitalize every minor case before weeding out old recordsJustice 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 Incharge OICs of record rooms shall determine the category of cases that require digitization and petty cases that do not require digitizationThis order was made in response to an application filed by the court registry seeking clarifications on a previous order issued in January 2017In 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 judgmentThe 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 formDuring the recent application hearing advocate Rajat Aneja representing the administrative side of the high court argued that the accumulation of records due to nonweeding is causing significant problems Aneja also requested the court to issue directions for smooth digitization and record maintenanceThe high courts 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 challansWith 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 wellThe records unless of historical importance and after completing the statutory preservation period may be weeded out as per existing rules the court statedJustice Sharma further mentioned The principal district and sessions judge HQ in consultation with all other principal district and sessions judges and the chairman IT amp Digitization of Delhi District Courts shall prepare a comprehensive list of the types of cases or records that need to be prioritized for digitizationThe 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 courtThese directions are to be circulated to all district judgesPTI