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Authored by - Shivam Pandey (Intern at Legal Soch Foundation)
Meta Description - Members of KACA contested a hunger strike for one day opposing the complete change to e-filing system for all legal cases. In the protest Kerala High Court judge PV Kunhikrishnan joined, shows concern to the grievances and supported the advocate clerk. The KACA also requested for some change.
Keywords - Kerala High Court, KACA, Kerala Advocate Clerk Association, Justice PV Kunhikrishnan.
Members of the Kerala Advocate Clerk Association (KACA) scheduled a one-day hunger strike outside the Kerala High Court on Thiruvonam Day in order to oppose the complete transformation to electronic filing for all legal cases and documents that started on August 1.
This change was implemented in all courts across the state of Kerala.The High Court at the beginning made it compulsory to file all types of cases electronically, including criminal cases, excluding final reports that had to be submitted by the police or investigation agency. However, the compulsory electronic filing was later disbursed for various applications.
The Kerala Advocate Clerk Association (KACA) kept their point at the high court’s decision to complete the transformation to electronic filing mode without taking into account the KACA's submission that this could lead to many clerks losing their jobs and becoming unemployed.The Kerala Advocate Clerk Association (KACA) claims that their submission was ignored by the authorities to avoid this outcome. They also made a clarification that they are not against electronic filing, but they oppose the way it’s being implemented in various courts across the state.
Here are the few demands of KACA that they requested in the hunger strike:
● Handwritten treatment with a scanned PDF form should be allowed, and the restriction on using handwritten submissions in electronic filing should be withdrawn.
● They also requested exempting documents like the application copy, the batha memo, and others, excluding plain or complaining documents from the E filing mandate.
● They asked for maintaining both paper and electronic filing options.Their request also includes the gradual implementation of e-filing and setting up an adequate number of E-SEVA centres in all court complexes across the state.
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