Plea before Kerala High Court seeks inclusion of advocate clerks in E-filing process

An advocate clerk has moved the Kerala High Court seeking the inclusion of advocate clerks in the e-filing procedure that has been adopted by courts across the State [Prathap P v State of Kerala & Anr.]..Justice N Nagaresh admitted the plea that sought to declare the Electronic Filing Rules for Courts (Kerala) to the extent it excludes the registered clerks of an advocate from the definition of an E-Filer in Rule 2 (j), as unconstitutional..The plea filed through advocate Krishnan PB contended that the rules notified by the High Court (who is respondent no. 2) seeking implementation of the e-filing system, ignores the role of advocate clerks in the State of Kerala and the same are arbitrary, erroneous and unjustifiable.It stated that advocate clerks, who have been an integral part of the administration of justice, are sidelined by the present system of e-filing. According to the petitioner, this deprives the over 10,000 advocate clerks in Kerala of of their livelihood and therefore, requires modification.Therefore, it is violative of the fundamental rights of the petitioner and other advocate clerks, guaranteed under Articles 14, 19(1)g and 21 of the Constitution of India, the plea said.The petitioner, who is an advocate clerk from Thrissur district, highlighted the situation at subordinate courts. He contended that the present system of confining filing to e-filing, when a huge volume of documents have to be uploaded, has made it practically impossible for the cases to proceed before a subordinate court..The plea clarified that the petitioner and other clerks are not seeking to challenge the digitisation of the filing process or seeking to limit the use of technology to improve the justice-delivery system in the State. "The petitioner is keen on a continuance of the existing filing procedures and presentation of papers/records through an advocate clerk even after the implementation of the E filing Rules. In other words, the grievance of the Petitioner is limited to the exclusion of the advocate clerks in the new regime", the plea said..It was contended that if advocate clerks are recognised as E filers, the grievances voiced through this petition will stand redressed. However, the soft-skills of the advocate clerks have to be improved, the plea said. An interesting suggestion put forth by the petitioner in this regard is the setting up of kiosks with a sufficient number of staff at all court premises. Advocate clerks can get the documents filed through the said kiosks and the personnel at the kiosks can upload, and file the same through the said facility. In such a situation, the petitioner believes that the role of an advocate and an advocate clerk will move forward as it existed till now, and thereby facilitate the smooth functioning of the e-filing system..On January 1, 2022, the Kerala High Court had issued a notification stating that filing of all cases at the Court would be through e-filing. The SOP for filing at District courts mandating e-filing and physical filing was released. .Simultaneously, outside almost all the district courts across Kerala, advocate clerks organised a protest against the same.Speaking to Bar & Bench in January, Kerala Advocate Clerks Association president Rajendran VK said,"There are over 10,000 advocate clerks in Kerala so over 10,000 families are affected. When an initiative like this that affects the entire court system is implemented, one would think that the impact on such a significant section would be considered. However, no discussions were held to consider this even though advocate clerks are a section of the court system that would be largely affected by this"He said that the association of advocate clerks hope that future protests and deliberations will lead to providing them with an active role in the e-filing environment..The Kerala High Court Advocates Association (KHCAA) has consistently opposed the E-filing rules introduced by the High Court.In the face of this opposition from many fronts, the Kerala High Court had put up a notice on its website stating that even cases that are filed using the e-filing portal will be listed only on production of physical copies of the petition.