Supreme Court bats for changes to its rules to allow electronic copies of trial court records

The Supreme Court on Thursday called for amendments to its rules to allow the production of electronic copies of trial court records in criminal appeals, rather than having them produced in physical form. [Sajeev vs State of Kerala].A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Sanjay Karol stated that the move would facilitate a quicker availability of trial court records with the apex court and that it would be a more environmentally conscious approach..The bench has suggested that sub-rules 2 and 3 of Rule 5 of Order XX of the Supreme Court Rules, 2013 be amended to effect the change. The said rules presently call for the production of physical copies of original trial court records in criminal appeals involving a sentence of life imprisonment or death penalty. In other cases, the calling of such records is subject to specific orders of the concerned bench.The bench has now proposed that the following changes be introduced so that electronic copies of such records can be produced:i. Sub-rule 3 be amended to insert the words ‘soft copy’ before the words ‘original records’, resulting in e-copies of the Original Records being requisitioned. This would facilitate a much quicker availability of such records to the court and also further a more environmentally conscious approach.ii. Further, by necessary amendment, such requisition of the soft copy of the record be extended to cases where leave is granted against an order of acquittal or conviction.iii. Such soft copy of the records, once received be provided to the counsel appearing for the parties..The bench also directed that the Court Registry place a copy of this judgment before the Chief Justice of India for appropriate directions..In the same judgment, the bench also took critical note that in several cases, the trial courts were not duly placed before the Court, leading to unnecessary adjournments and delays. "We deem it appropriate to deprecate the practice of depositions of material witnesses not being placed on record ... We have observed that such practices often cause repeated adjournments, which goes to the root of pendency and delay in disposing of appeals," the bench said, in its November 9 order..These observations and directions came while dismissing appeals filed by two persons accused in a 2003 alcohol poisoning case. The Kerala High Court and the trial court had earlier convicted them and sentenced them to life imprisonment. The top court found no ground to interfere with the conviction or sentence, opining that there was nothing perverse in the findings of the courts below, nor had they discarded any vital evidence.Since one of the accused had passed away, his appeal stood abated. The Court, therefore, dismissed the appeal of the remaining accused-appellant before the Court. "There can be no doubt left about the involvement of the accused persons before us, in the sale and mixing of methyl alcohol with spirit as part of the conspiracy, resulting in deaths and injuries to many innocent persons," the Court concluded. .Senior Advocate R Basant with advocates Gaurav Agarwal and Lakshmi Kaimal appeared for the accused.Advocates Harshad V Hameed, Dileep Poolakkot, SubHash Chandran KK, and Ashly Harsahd appeared for the Kerala government..[Read Judgment]