By Our Legal Correspondent
Thiruvananthapuram: The Trivandrum Bar Association is known for its inimitable spirit to “fight till finish.” The Association, up in arms against the “hurried and erroneous” implementation of E-filing in lower courts, has forced the authorities to “modify the decision” and make the process “effortless” with an interest to ease the judicial process.
A day-long protest on Monday culminated with the district judiciary conceding the demands of the agitating lawyers “to make the E-filing snag free.” Dwelling on the “onerous” process associated with the current E-filing system, Senior lawyer and President of the Association Anayara Shaji elaborated, “As responsible legal professionals, we lawyers are never opposed to e-filing. We are only against the hurried and forceful implementation of a new system, not familiar to many of the advocates, their assistants and clerks.” His argument is “a system is updated or modernized to improve its efficacy. Here in this case the abrupt implementation of the E-filing system with little homework done has not only impeded the legal process in total, but created confusion for both the lawyers and their clients. So we resolved to observe February 14, the lover’s day, as Black Day to mark our protest.”
Criticizing imprudence shown in the implementation of E-filing Advocate Prijice Fasil, Secretary of the Association, said, “An advocate helps to deliver justice to the people who approach the judicial system. The E-filing system if implemented in its current form only will impede delivery of justice. The current system is cumbersome and not feasible.”
Denouncing the current E-filing system Advocate Salini T S, a member of the Association said “a case that needs only a few minutes for physical filing will take many hours to file through the E-system. Moreover, there has been no training imparted either to the lawyers of their clerks on functioning of the system.”
However, Advocate Anayara Shaji, as President of the Association, is breathing a sigh of relief for “the administration has conceded our demand to make the system hurdle-free, thanks to the persistence and fortitude of our lawyer colleagues who stood firm with the protest.” He further added, “As a lawyer I believe any delay in delivery of justice, for whatever reasons, is bound to have a negative impact on the advocates. For, the clients always rely on lawyers for legal justice and legal remadies.”
Advocate Shaji further said, “Modernization and update of judicial technology is welcome if it is error free and helps the public in getting justice at a better pace. Let me reiterate, our agitation was not against E-filing, but imperfect implementation, which could burden both the lawyers and the public. We hope the Judiciary will have a serious review on this contentious issue and resolve it forever.”
According to Advocate Fasil over 500 advocates and their clerks had gathered at the Trivandrum Bar Association on Monday noon, in scorching heat, to register their protest against the current E-filing procedure. Managing Committee members of Trivandrum Bar Association, Adv. Ajun Krishna, Adv. Harikrishnan, Adv. Dhanya.U.D, Adv. Saritha.V.R and Adv. Adarsh Ananthapuri were actively involved in organizing the protest rally.
