Correction Slip.

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HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH

Correction Slip

The 7th February, 2023

No. 190 Rules/II.D4.— Pursuant to formulation of 'Model Rules on e-filing' by Hon'ble E-Committee, Supreme Court of India, sent vide letter dated 24.06.2020, Hon'ble the Chief Justice and Judges of this Court have been pleased to make 'The Electronic Filing (E-Filing) Rules' to be inserted as Part-J of Chapter 1 of the Rules and Orders of Punjab and Haryana High Court, Volume-V as under :-

THE ELECTRONIC FILING (E-FILING) RULES

In exercise of powers under Articles 225 and 227 of the Constitution of India and all other powers enabling it in this behalf the High Court of Punjab and Haryana at Chandigarh makes the following rules:

1. Nomenclature

These rules will be called 'THE ELECTRONIC FILING (E-FILING) RULES'.

2. Applicability and Commencement:

These rules will be applicable to the High Court of Judicature at Punjab & Haryana and to the Courts and Tribunals over which it has supervisory jurisdiction.

These Rules shall come into force from the date of notification in the official gazettes of Punjab, Haryana and U.T. Chandigarh.

These Rules will apply to on-line e-filing and e-filing through Designated Counters and facilities provided for e-filing, including e-Service Centres. The rules will apply to such categories of cases or proceedings as would be notified by the High Court. These Rules amend and consolidate the existing Rules and Practice Directions except in the matter of filing hardcopies till the issuance of appropriate direction on creation of paperless court.

3. Definitions

3.1 Action: includes all proceedings instituted in the Court or Tribunal such as suits, petitions, criminal complaints, appeals, civil or criminal writ petitions, revision petitions, contempt petitions, execution petitions, arbitration petitions, probate cases, caveats, miscellaneous cases, cancellation or untraced reports, reports under Section 173 of Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 and interlocutory applications.

3.2 Administrator: means in case of High Court, the Registrar (IT) or an officer appointed by the Chief Justice and in case of District Court, the officer or official appointed by the District and Sessions Judge concerned, for administering and dealing with matters connected with or relating to e-filing.

3.3 Bench: means and includes one or more Judges assigned to adjudicate upon Actions or the presiding officer of the Court or Tribunal as the case may be.

3.4 Chief Justice: means the Chief Justice of High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh.

3.5 Physical Filing: means Actions and pleadings filed as hard copies.

3.6 Designated Counters: means and includes those counters that may be included in Appendix-I from time to time.

3.7 District Courts: means and includes the courts established and functioning under the control and supervision of the High Court.

3.8 District and Sessions Judge: in relation to these rules means the District & Sessions Judge of the district concerned.

3.9 Electronic Filing (e-filing): means e-filing as prescribed through the Internet (at the web portal of the Court) and through the internet/intranet at Designated Counters, unless the context requires otherwise.

3.10 Evidence: means and includes evidence as defined under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

3.11 High Court: High Court means the High Court of Punjab & Haryana at Chandigarh.

3.12 Objections: means and includes deficiencies and errors pointed out by the Registry/office in relation to the Actions instituted in the Court or Tribunal.

3.13 Opposite Party: means defendant(s), accused, respondents, judgment debtor(s) and non-applicant(s).

3.14 Party: means caveator(s), appellant(s), plaintiff(s), petitioner(s), decree holder(s), complainant(s) and applicant(s).

3.15 Pleadings: means pleadings filed in support or defence of an Action including replication, affidavits, additional affidavits and supplementary affidavits.

3.16 PDF: means an electronic document filed in a portable document format.

3.17 PDF/A: means an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF) specialized for the digital preservation of electronic documents.

3.18 Registry: in case of High Court means the Registry of High Court and in case of District Courts/Tribunal means the office of District and Sessions Judge/Tribunal.

3.19 Statement of Defence: means and includes written statements, replies, counter-affidavits and additional or supplementary affidavits.

3.20 Technical failure: means a failure of the court's hardware, software, and/or telecommunications facility which results in the impossibility of submitting a file electronically. Technical failure does not include malfunctioning of the equipment of the person submitting an e-file.

3.21 Third Party: means and includes any person or entity seeking to become a party or to intervene in an Action.

3.22 Working Day: means and includes a day when the Registry/office of the Court or Tribunal is working under the Calendar published or as directed by the Court.

4 General Instructions: Following or as may be prescribed by the Chief Justice:-

4.1 On-line e-filing in High Court or District Court shall be made by visiting the web portal of the Court, namely https://efiling- phc.ecourts.gov.in/ or by clicking on e-filing link on the official website of High Court.

4.2 Except as provided in these Rules, Actions, whether in fresh, pending or disposed of cases, will be filed electronically by an advocate or litigant in-person from their home, office or other remote location in the manner provided in these Rules.

4.3 Any person who is unable to access the e-filing portal would be entitled to make use of the facilities provided at the Designated Counters for that purpose, upon payment of charges, if any prescribed by the High Court.

4.4 The size of the e-file should not exceed the limit as prescribed on web-portal from time to time. In case the file size exceeds the prescribed limit, the Advocate or litigant should visit any one of the Designated Centres for enabling e-filing through the intranet.

5 Steps for Registration

5.1 Persons other than Advocates and litigants in-person who are already registered on the Court web portal will take the following steps to register themselves:

(i) Advocates

(a) Should visit the web portal (https://efiling-phc.ecourts.gov.in/ ) to view the form.

(b) Click the registration link. Select the option of 'Advocate'.

(c) Fill the form with requisite details.

(d) Submit the filled-up form along with a self-attested copy of the Bar Council Registration Certificate or Bar Council I-card (in PDF format only).

(ii) Litigants in-person

(a) Should visit the web portal (https://efiling-phc.ecourts.gov.in/) to view the form.

(b) Click the registration link. Select the option of 'Party in-person'.

(c) Fill the form with requisite details.

(d) Submit the filled-up form along with the self-attested copy of any identity document issued by the Government (in PDF format only).

5.2 Litigants in-person shall submit an affidavit/undertaking that they have not engaged an Advocate in the Action. A litigant in-person, who subsequently engages an Advocate, shall make an application before the Administrator for transferring the data in respect of the Action to the Advocate's account. Once the Administrator allows the application, the data in the Action shall be transferred in the user account of the Advocate. The litigant in-person will not be in a position to modify the data of the subject Action, without the permission of the Administrator.

5.3 A login ID will be allotted on the next working day if the application is found complete in all respects. The procedure for registration is set out in Appendix-II.

6 Frame of Pleadings

All the pleadings of the parties should be in accordance with Rules and Orders of the Punjab & Haryana High Court and the instructions issued from time to time by the High Court.

7 Formatting

7.1 All the original typed text material including notice of motion, memorandum of parties, main petition or appeal, interlocutory application(s), reply, status report, affidavit, documents, will be prepared as per Rules and Orders of Punjab and Haryana High Court rules and orders and the instructions issued from time to time by the High Court.

7.2 The document should be converted into Optical Character Recognition (OCR) searchable Portable Document Format PDF/A using any PDF converter or in-built PDF conversion plug-in provided in the software.

7.3 A document which is not a text document and has to be enclosed with the Action, should be scanned using an image resolution of 300 DPI (Dots per inch) in OCR searchable mode and saved as a PDF document. The procedure for converting a document into an OCR searchable PDF as mentioned above and as required in clause 9.1 is set out in Appendix-III.

8 Digital Signatures

8.1 The PDF document shall be digitally signed either by the parties and/or by their Advocate. The digital signatures shall be appended on such places on the PDF document as prescribed under the extant rules. If neither the party nor the Advocate who has been engaged possesses a digital signature, a print out of the Action shall be physically signed by the party concerned and/or their Advocate in accordance with rules and it shall thereafter be scanned and uploaded.

8.2 A List of recognized Digital Signature Providers and the procedure involved in appending single or multiple signatures is set out in Appendix-IV.

8.3 A litigant in-person or advocate who does not possess a digital signature issued by the competent authority can authenticate e-filed documents by e-Sign based on Aadhaar authentication.

9 Dos and Don'ts

9.1 The text documents and scanned documents set out in clauses 7.3 and 8.1 should be merged as a single OCR searchable PDF file and should be book-marked as per the Master Index, duly approved by the Registry. The procedure in this behalf is set out in Appendix-V.

9.2 The merged documents should be uploaded at the time of on-line e- filing. Screenshots of the manner of accessing the on-line e-filing portal and for the filing of the main case and documents including written statements, replies, replications, rejoinders, affidavits and evidence in a pending case are set out in Appendix-I.

9.3 Once e-filing is accepted, the filing or registration number shall be notified to the Advocate or litigant in-person.

9.4 In case on-line e-filing includes audio and/or video files, the Administrator shall generate a hash value.

9.5 Special Characters are not allowed while e-filling Memo of Parties and Advocate remarks.

9.6 Document Binary File Name Standards

The following special characters are not allowed in a file name:

• A quotation mark (")

• A number sign/Pound (#)

• Per cent (%)

• Ampersand (&)

• Asterisk (*)

• Colon (:)

• Angle brackets (less than, greater than) (<>)

• A question mark (?)

• Backslash (\)

• Forward slash (/)

• Braces (left and right) ({ })30 HARYANA GOVT. GAZ. (EXTRA.), FEB. 16, 2023 (MAGH. 27, 1944 SAKA) • Pipe (|)

• A tilde (~)

• The period (.) character used consecutively in the middle of the file name or at the beginning or end of the file name.

File names should not exceed 45 characters in length, including spaces. Single space must be counted as one character each.

9.7 On-line e-filing shall not be watermarked or encrypted. The e-filed documents shall not contain any virus, malware, spam-ware, trojan horse or the like. All the e-filed documents shall be legible and free of markings, track changes or annotations.

10 Payment of Court Fees/Other Charges

Court fee and other charges can be paid either electronically by purchase on the on-line facility provided by the authorised agency or from the Designated Counters provided for the purpose in the High Court and District Courts or from any authorized court fee vendor. The Transaction ID provided upon payment of court fee and other charges is required to be entered in the appropriate field at the time of on-line e-filing.

11 Retention of Originals

11.1 Originals of the documents that are scanned and digitally signed by the Advocate or the litigant in- person at the time of e-filing should be preserved, for production or inspection, as may be directed by the Bench.

11.2 The signed vakalatnama, signed and notarized/attested affidavit and any other document whose authenticity is likely to be questioned should be preserved, at least, for two years till after the final disposal of the Action. Final disposal shall include disposal of the Action by the superior appellate court.

11.3 Notwithstanding anything above, the following documents will have to be preserved permanently: - (a) A Negotiable Instrument (other than a cheque) as defined in Section 13 of The Negotiable Instruments Act, 1881 (26 of 1881).

(b) A Power-of-Attorney as defined in section 1A of the Powers-of- Attorney Act, 1882 (7 of 1882).

(c) A Trust as defined in Section 3 of The Indian Trusts Act, 1882 (2 of 1882).

(d) A Will as defined in Clause (h) of Section 2 of The Indian Succession Act, 1925 (39 of 1925) including any other testamentary disposition by whatever name called.

(e) Any contract for the sale or conveyance of immovable property or any interest in such property.

(f) Any other document as may be directed by the Bench.

11.4 The responsibility of producing the originals and proving their genuineness shall be of the party that has electronically filed scanned copies of the document.

12 Access to the Electronic Data of the Action

Free of cost access will be available to authorized person(s) to data e- filed by any of the parties to the specific Action, as is presently being provided in pending Actions. This facility shall be in addition to the procedure of obtaining certified copies.

13 Exemption from e-filing

Exemption from on-line e-filing of the entire pleading or a part of the pleadings and/or documents may be permitted by the Bench upon an application being made for that purpose in the following circumstances:-

(i) where on-line e-filing is for reasons set out in the application not feasible; or

(ii) where there are concerns about confidentiality and protection of privacy; or

(iii) where the document cannot be scanned or filed electronically because of its size, shape or condition;

or

(iv) where the on-line e-filing portal is either inaccessible or not available for some reason; and/or (v) for a just and sufficient cause.

14 Service of Electronic Documents

In addition to the prescribed mode of service, notices, documents, pleadings that are filed electronically may also be served through the designated e-mail IDs of Registry officials to the e-mail address of the advocates or parties, if available. E-mail IDs of Registry officials will be published on the Court website to enable the recipients to verify the source of the e-mail.

15 Computation of Time

15.1 Wherever limitation/time limits apply, it will be the responsibility of the party concerned to ensure that the filing is carried out well before the cut-off date and time and hardcopy thereof (if required) be provided within the prescribed time. The date of e-filing will be taken as that date when the Action is electronically received in the Registry within the prescribed time on any working day. For computing the time at which e-filing is made, Indian Standard Time (IST) will apply.

15.2 E-filing through Designated Counters will be permissible up to 1600 hours on any court working day. On-line e-filing carried out after midnight i.e. 2400 hours of the day, will be treated as the date which follows the actual filing date provided it is a court working day. Actions filed on a day declared as gazetted holiday or on a day when the court is closed, will be regarded as having been filed on the next working day. For the computation of limitation, on-line e- filing shall be subject to the same legal regime as applicable to physical filing, save and except as provided herein above.

15.3 The facility for on-line e-filing through the web portal shall be available during all twenty four hours of each day, subject to breakdown, server downtime, system maintenance or such other exigencies. Where on-line e-filing is not possible for any of the reasons set out above, parties can either approach the Designated Counters for e-filing between working hours on court working days or take recourse to physical filing. No exemption from limitation shall be permitted on the ground of a failure of the web based on- line e-filing facility.

15.4 Provisions for limitation governing on-line e-filing will be the same as those applicable to physical filing. The period of limitation for such actions will commence from the date when e-filing is made as per the procedure prescribed in these Rules.

16 Procedure for Filing Caveat

All caveats can be filed on-line. The procedure for this purpose is set out in Appendix-VI.

17 Hard Copies of Pleadings and Documents filed Electronically

Advocates, as well as parties, may print hard copies of all pleadings and documents filed electronically for their use in the court or elsewhere. The Registry will whenever required prepare hard copies for official use.

18 Storage and Retrieval of e-filed Documents and Pleadings

E-filings will be stored on an exclusive server maintained under the control and directions of the Court. Each such filing will be separately labelled and encrypted for facilitating easy identification and retrieval. The security of such filings will be ensured.

Access to e-filings would be restricted in the manner provided herein above and as may be notified from time to time. For continuity of operations in case of disaster, natural calamity or breakdown, a mirror image of e- filings available on the servers located in the Court may be maintained at different geographical locations, as decided from time to time by the Court.

19 Residuary provisions

19.1 The e-filing made by an Advocate/litigant in-person will be rejected if they do not follow the protocol mandated by these Rules or practice directions.

19.2 Subject to such further directions as may be issued, it would not be obligatory on the part of the opposite party to accept pleadings and documents by e-mail. In such an eventuality, hard copies of pleadings and documents will have to be provided to the opposite party. In such circumstances, the plaintiff/petitioner can be called upon to deposit the charges calculated on the basis of the number of pages per defendant/respondent which are required to be photocopied. This facility will be provided by the Registry on a written request being made by the defendant(s)/respondent(s).

19.3 The Registry will communicate the objections, if any, regarding the cases filed by e-mail/SMS/web hosting to the concerned Advocate/litigant in-person. After the objections are cleared the case will be processed for listing and the Advocate/litigant in- person will be informed including by e-mail/SMS.

20 General Caution

E-mail is not a secure medium of communication. Any communication transmitted by e-mail can be intercepted or read by a third party. An Advocate or litigant in-person seeking to transmit confidential or sensitive document/material shall approach the Registry or requisite assistance/advice.

Appendices

APPENDIX-I Screenshots showing the procedure for accessing the on-line portal, electronic filing of documents and list of Designated Counters.

APPENDIX-II Screenshots showing the procedure for registration.

APPENDIX-III Screenshots showing the procedure for converting a document into an OCR searchable PDF.

APPENDIX-IV Screenshots showing the procedure for appending single or multiple digital signatures.

APPENDIX-V Screenshots showing the procedure for book-marking.

APPENDIX-VI Screenshots showing the procedure for filing Caveat.

APPENDIX-I

BY ORDER OF HON'BLE THE CHIEF JUSTICE AND JUDGES.

ARUN KUMAR AGGARWAL, Registrar (Rules) for Registrar General.

10198—L.R.—H.G.P., Pkl.