THE

JHARKHAND GAZETTE

EXTRAORDINARY

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

28 Kartik, 1942 (S)

Ranchi, Thursday, 19^th November, 2020

HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND, RANCHI

--------

NOTIFICATION

19^th of November, 2020

No.- 42/2020/R&S--

RULES FOR ON-LINE ELECTRONIC FILING (E-FILING)

(UNDER ARTICLE 225 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA)

Short Title, Applicability and Commencement:

These Rules shall be called High Court of Jharkhand e-filing Rules, 2020. These will be

applicable to the High Court of Jharkhand and will come into force from the date of

publication in the Jharkhand Gazette.

1. Preface

These Rules shall apply to on-line e-filing and e-filing through Designated Counters and

facilities provided for e-filing, including e-Service Centres.

2. Definitions

2.1. Action: means all proceedings instituted in the Court such as Suits, Election

Petitions, Civil and Criminal Applications, Appeals, Civil or Criminal Writ Petitions,

Applications (B.A. & A.B.A.), Revision Petitions, Contempt Petitions, Execution Petitions,

Arbitration Petitions & Appeals, Probate Cases, such other Cases as enumerated under

No. 578

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020

Rule 84 of the High Court of Jharkhand Rules, 2001 as amended, Miscellaneous and

Interlocutory Applications.

2.2. Administrator: means the Central Project Coordinator or an officer appointed by the

Chief Justice for administering and dealing with matters connected with or relating to e-

filing.

2.3. Bench: means one or more Judges assigned to adjudicate upon Actions or the

presiding officer of the Court.

2.4. Physical Filing: means Actions and pleadings filed as documents in hard copies.

2.5 District Courts: means the courts established and functioning under the control and

supervision of the High Court.

2.6. 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.

2.7. Evidence: means evidence as defined under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.

2.8. High Court: High Court means the High Court of Jharkhand.

2.9. Objections: means deficiencies and errors pointed out by the Stamp Reporting or

concerned section in relation to the Actions instituted in the Court.

2.10. Opposite Party: means Defendant(s), Respondent(s), Performa Respondent(s),

Judgment Debtor(s), contemner(s) and non-applicant(s).

2.11. Party: means Appellant(s), Plaintiff(s), Petitioner(s), Complainant(s), and

Applicant(s).

2.12. Pleadings: means pleadings filed in support or defence of an Action such as

Affidavits, Additional Affidavits, Counter Affidavits, Supplementary Affidavits and any

other document/report(s) permitted by the Court to be treated as part of the pleadings.

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

2.14. PDF/A: means an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format

(PDF) specialized for the digital preservation of electronic documents.

2.15. Registry: means the Registry of the High Court of Jharkhand.

2.16. Statement of Defence: means Written Statements, Replies, Rejoinder, Show

Cause, Counter-Affidavits and Additional or Supplementary Affidavits.

2.17.

Technical

failure:

means

failure

hardware,

software,

and/or

telecommunications facility resulting in the impossibility of submitting a file

electronically. Technical failure does not include malfunctioning of the equipment of the

person submitting an e-file.

2.18. Third Party: means any person or entity seeking to become a party or to intervene

in an Action. Third Party has to register in the Court web portal as provided under Rule

4 of these Rules either through Advocate or in person.

2.19. Working Day: means a day when the Registry of the Court is working under the

Calendar published or as directed by the Court.

2.20. Regulation: means regulations made by the High Court of Jharkhand for the

purpose of giving effect to these rules.

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3. General Instructions

3.1. On-line e-filing shall be made by visiting or logging in the web portal of the Court,

namely: https://jharkhandhighcourt.nic.in

3.2. Except as provided hereinafter, 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.

3.3. Dedicated counter facility exist in the High Court. Any person would be entitled to

make use of the facilities provided at the Designated Counters for accessing the e-filing

portal upon payment of such charges as stipulated.

3.4. The size of the e-file should not exceed 20 MB. In case the file size exceeds 20 MB,

the Advocate or litigant should split and uploaded separately.

3.5. A document that an advocate or party files electronically under these Rules has the

same legal effect as a document in paper form. Provided that for the time being, the

parties and advocates shall continue to file the hard copy within 07 days of e-filing in

urgent matter and 15 days in ordinary matter as opted by the efilier in the efiling

module at the time of efiling. The condition of filing of hard copy of e-filed cases within

07 days or 15 days, as the case may be, of e-filing can be relaxed by the Chief Justice by

issuing Practice directions.

4. Steps for Registration

4.1. Advocates and litigants in person will take the following steps to register

themselves.

i) Advocates

a) Should visit or login the web portal (https://jharkhandhighcourt.nic.in) to

view the form.

b) Click the registration link.

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://jharkhandhighcourt.nic.in) to view the

form.

b) Click the registration link.

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).

4.2. Litigant-in-person shall submit an affidavit/undertaking that he has 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

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020

litigant-in-person cannot be in a position to modify the data of the subject Action,

without the permission of the Court.

4.3. 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.

5. Frame of Pleadings

The pleadings should be clear and concise. Parties and third parties should set forth

their claims/averments in separate paragraphs. The statement of truth/ affidavit of the

concerned person must bear their signature. Opposite parties should also file their

replies under sequentially numbered paragraphs and headings (such as Preliminary

Objections and Objections on Merits).

6. Formatting

6.1. 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 electronically using the following formatting

style:

•

Paper size : A-4

•

Top Margin : 1.5”

•

Bottom Margin : 1.5”

•

Left Margin : 1.75”

•

Right Margin : 1.0”

•

Alignment : Justified

•

Font : Verndana

•

Font size : 14

•

Line spacing : 1.5

•

If any document is typed in a Hindi in Trial Courts, it must be in

prepared using Kruti Dev Unicode Font 14

6.2. The document should be converted into Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

searchable Portable Document Format (PDF) or PDF/A using any PDF converter or in-

built PDF conversion plug-in provided in the software. PDF/A is the preferred format.

6.3. A document which is not a text document has to be attached with the Action, after

being scanned using an image resolution of 300 DPI (Dots per inch) in OCR searchable

mode and saved as a PDF document.

7. Digital Signatures

7.1. 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 possess 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

thereafter scanned and uploaded.

7.2. A litigant-in-person or advocate without a digital signature issued by the competent

authority can authenticate e-filed documents by e-Sign based Aadhaar authentication.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020 5

8. Dos and Don’ts

8.1. The text documents and scanned documents set out in clauses 6.3 and 7.1 should

be merged as a single OCR searchable PDF file and book-marked as per the Master

Index.

8.2. 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, Applications, replies,

replications, rejoinders, affidavits and evidence in a pending case are set out in

Appendix - I.

8.3. Once e-filing is accepted, the filing or registration number will be notified to the

Advocate or litigant-in-person.

8.4. In case on-line e-filing includes audio and/or video files, the Administrator shall

generate a hash value.

8.5. Special Characters are not allowed in e-filing of Memo of Parties and Advocate

remarks.

8.6. Document Binary File Name Standards

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

1. A quotation mark (")

2. A number sign/Pound (#)

3. Per cent (%)

4. Ampersand (&)

5. Asterisk (*)

6. Colon (:)

7. Angle brackets (less than, greater than) (<>)

8. A question mark (?)

9. Backslash (\)

10. Forward slash (/)

11. Braces (left and right) ({ })

12. Pipe (|)

13. A tilde (~)

14. 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.

8.7. 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.

9. Payment of Court Fees/Other Charges

Court fee and other charges can be paid either directly on the E-filing portal or

electronically through on-line facility provided by the authorised agency or through the

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020

Designated Counters provided for the purpose in the High Court and District Courts or

through 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.

10. Retention of Originals

10.1. 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.

10.2. The signed vakalatnama, signed and notarized/attested affidavit and any other

document authenticity of which 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.

10.3. Notwithstanding anything above, the following documents shall 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.

10.4. The responsibility of producing the originals and proving their genuineness shall be

of the party electronically filing the scanned copies of the document.

11. Access to the Electronic Data of the Action

Access free of cost 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.

12. 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.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020 7

13. Service of Electronic Documents

In addition to the prescribed mode of service, such notices, documents, pleadings that

are filed electronically may also be served upon order of the Court through the

designated e-mail IDs of Administrator or such official designated for this purpose to the

e-mail address of the advocates or parties, if available. E-mail IDs of designated officials

will be published on the Court website for verification of the source of the e-mail.

14. Computation of Time

14.1. 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.

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.

14.2. E-filing through Designated Counters will be permissible up to 1530 hours on any

court working day. On-line e-filing carried out after 1530 hours on any 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.

14.3. 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 1030 to 1530 on court working days or take recourse to physical filing. No

exemption from limitation shall be permitted on the ground of failure of the on-line or

web based e-filing facility.

14.4. 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.

15. 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. Hard copies will be prepared by

the Court, wherever required.

16. 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 to

facilitate 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

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020

Court may be maintained at different geographical locations, as decided from time to

time by the Court.

17. Residuary provisions

17.1. The e-filing made by an Advocate/litigant in person will be rejected if they do not

follow the protocol or practice mandated by these Rules.

17.2. 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 email. In such an

eventuality, hard copies of pleadings and documents will be served on the opposite

party. In such circumstances, the plaintiff/ petitioner can be called upon to deposit the

photocopy charges of the pleadings and documents per respondent/defendant. This

facility will be provided by the Court on a written request made by the

respondent(s)/defendant(s).

17.3. The objections or defects, if any, regarding the Action filed will be communicated

by email/SMS/web hosting to the concerned Advocate/litigant-in-person. After the

defects are cleared the Action will be processed for listing and the Advocate/litigant in

person will be informed including by email/SMS.

18. General Caution

Email is not a secure medium of communication. Any communication transmitted by

email 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

Court for requisite assistance/advice.

19. Regulation Making Power

The High Court of Jharkhand may frame, as and when required, necessary regulation(s)

not inconsistent with these rules, regarding all or any of the matters for which provision

is necessary or expedient, for the purpose of giving effect to these rules.

20. Interpretation of these Rules

Whenever any difficulty or doubt arises in applying and /or interpreting these Rules, the

decision of the High Court of Jharkhand thereon shall be final.

Appendices

APPENDIX – I Screenshots showing the procedure for accessing the on-line

portal, electronic filing of documents

APPENDIX – II Screenshots showing the procedure for registration.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Thursday, 19^thNovember, 2020 9