High court of Kerala E-Filing rules are notified

By: U.Jayakrishnan (Advocate practicing at High court of Kerala)

The Kerala High Court has notified Electronic Filing Rules For Courts (Kerala), 2021 (Rules) which shall be applicable for all the courts and tribunals across the state.

After obtaining previous approval of the Governor of Kerala conveyed in G.O.

(Rt)No.1350/2021/Home dated 07.05.2021, the High Court of Kerala has notified the

following Rules, namely

"Electronic Filing Rules for Courts (Kerala), 2020"

(1) These Rules shall be called the Electronic Filing Rules for Courts (Kerala), 2020.

(2) They shall come into force on the date notified by the High Court.

(3) These Rules shall apply to the High Court and Subordinate Courts over which the High Court exercises supervisory jurisdiction.

(4) These Rules shall also apply to Tribunals which shall be notified by the High Court from time to time.

(5) These Rules shall apply to online Electronic Filing System, Designated Counters and facilities provided for Electronic Filing through Electronic Service Centres.

(6) These Rules shall apply to such category of cases as are notified by the High Court in its website, or in such other manner, from time to time.

1. General Instructions.-

(1) Online electronic filing shall be made in the High Court by visiting the web portal of the High Court or that is assigned specifically for electronic filing by the Chief Justice.

(2) Online electronic filing shall be made in the Subordinate Courts or Tribunals by visiting the web portal of the respective courts or that is assigned specifically for electronic filing by the High Court.

(3) Except as provided elsewhere in these Rules, all Actions whether in fresh, pending and disposed of cases, shall be filed electronically by the E-Filer in the manner provided in these Rules.

(4) Any person who is unable to access the Electronic Filing portal would be get entitled to make use of the facilities provided at the Designated Counters on payment of charges,if stipulated.

(5) The size of the electronic file shall not exceed 100 MB. In case the electronic file size exceeds 100 MB, the E-Filer should visit any one of the Designated Counters for enabling Electronic Filing through the Intranet.

(6) A Party-in-Person who institutes or defends an Action shall submit an affidavit or an undertaking stating that he has not engaged an Advocate in the Action.

(7) A Party in-Person who subsequently engages an Advocate shall file an application before the Administrator for transferring the data in respect of the proceedings instituted, to the Advocate’s user account. Once the data is transferred by the Administrator to the user account of the Advocate, the Party-in-Person shall not be allowed to modify the data filed or file any pleadings in the same proceedings.

1. General Procedure:-

(1) Whenever an E-Filer intends to file a pleading the same shall be prepared electronically using any word processing software following the format as mentioned below.

(a) Paper Size: The pleadings shall be prepared on A-4paper

(b) Font and Font Size: The font of the letters shall be Times New Roman and the typeface shall be 14 point.

(c) Line Spacing: All text shall be of 1.5 line spaced.

(d) Alignment: All the documents shall be aligned with justified alignment.

(e) Margins: Top Margin – 1.5” Bottom Margin – 1.5” Left Margin – 1.75” Right Margin – 1.0”

(2) A document which is to be typed in the local language of the Court shall be typed using UNICODE Font 12.

(3) All pleadings and documents filed in the High Court shall be in PDF or PDF/A format. The pleadings and the documents produced in support of the same shall be converted into Optical Character Recognition (OCR) searchable PDF or PDF/A document. The E-Filer in addition can also utilise the service of online web editor available in the Electronic Filing System.

(4) The Electronic Filing System in addition to the uploading of PDF or PDF/A document shall also have the provision for uploading Video or Audio files.

(5) Where the document is not a text document and has to be enclosed along with the pleadings, the document shall be scanned using an image resolution of 300 DPI (Dots Per Inch) in OCR searchable mode and saved as a PDF or PDF/A. The E-Filer shall ensure that the documents filed are an accurate representation of the document and is complete and readable. When the original of the document is not clearly legible, a typed copy of the document duly certified by the Advocate or Party-in-Person shall also be scanned and uploaded along with the original.

(6) When the documents produced along with the pleadings or subsequently produced is not the original of the document, then the Advocate or the Party-in-Person producing the document, shall endorse on the top of the 1st page of the application/document, that the document is not the original document and that it is only a certified copy or a photocopy of the original document.

(7) The pleadings filed should strictly conform to the requirements as prescribed in the relevant Acts and Rules.

(8) The text document and the scanned documents shall be uploaded in the website of the relevant courts in the manner and method as prescribed by the High Court from time to time.Any electronic filing not made in the manner and method as prescribed by the High Court shall be treated as a defective electronic filing.

(9) The procedure for converting a document into an OCR searchable PDF or PDF/A file will be set out in the website of the respective courts.

The rules shall come into force on the date notified by the High Court.

Read the entire notification

go-rt-1350-2021-home-revised-393102.pdf

Download PDF • 294KB