THE

JHARKHAND GAZETTE

EXTRAORDINARY

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

9 Shrawn, 1943 (S)

Ranchi, Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

HIGH COURT OF JHARKHAND

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NOTIFICATION

31^st July, 2021

No. 16/2021/R&S

RULES FOR ON-LINE ELECTRONIC FILING (E-FILING) FRAMED UNDER ARTICLE 227 OF

THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

Short Title, Applicability and Commencement:

These Rules will be called e-filing Rules. These Rules will be applicable to the District

Courts and Tribunals over which High Court of Jharkhand has supervisory jurisdiction.

These Rules will come into force from the date of its notification.

1. Preface

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.

2. Definitions

2.1. Action: means all proceedings instituted in the District Courts and Tribunals such as

suits, criminal complaints, appeals, revision petitions, contempt petitions, execution

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Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

petitions, arbitration petitions, probate cases, such other cases filed in District Courts

and Tribunal, Miscellaneous case(s), Caveats and Interlocutory Applications.

2.2. Administrator: means the Registrar/Judge-in-charge or an officer appointed by the

Principal District Judge for administering and dealing with matters connected with or

relating to e-filing and in case of Tribunal, any officer appointed by the Presiding Officer

of the Tribunal.

2.3. Bench: means the presiding officer of the Court or Tribunal as the case may be.

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

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

supervision of the High Court of Jharkhand.

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 Sherestidar in

relation to the Actions instituted in the District Courts or such officer of the Tribunal.

2.10. Opposite Party: means defendant(s), performa defendant(s), respondents,

judgment debtor(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 including

affidavits, additional affidavits and supplementary affidavits.

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. Statement of Defence: means written statements, rejoinder, replies, counter-

affidavits and additional or supplementary affidavits.

2.16. Technical failure: means a failure of the Courts’ 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.

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

in an Action.

2.18. Working Day: means a day when the Court is working under the Calendar

published or as directed by the High Court of Jharkhand and in case of Tribunals, when

the Tribunal is working under the Calendar followed by such Tribunal.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

3. General Instructions

3.1. On-line e-filing shall be made by visiting the web portal of the respective District

Courts.

3.2. 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.

3.3. 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 e-filing.

4. Steps for Registration

4.1. 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 of the respective district Court or Tribunals 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 of the respective District Courts or Tribunals 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. 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,

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

shall make an application before the Administrator for transferring the data in respect

of the Action to the Advocate’s account in. 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.

4.3. A login ID will be allotted on the next working day if the application is found

complete in all respects.

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 : Times New Roman

•

Font size : 14

•

Line spacing : 1.5

•

If any document is typed in a local language in Trial Courts, it must

be in prepared using xxx 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 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.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

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 it

shall thereafter be scanned and uploaded.

7.2. 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.

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 should be 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, counter claims,

applications, replies, replications, rejoinders, affidavits and evidence in a pending case.

8.3. Once e-filing is accepted, the filing or registration number shall 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 while e-filling Memo of Parties and Advocate

remarks.

8.6. 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) (<>)

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

• A question mark (?)

• Backslash (\)

• Forward slash (/)

• Braces (left and right) ({ })

• 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.

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 electronically by purchase on the on-line

facility provided by the authorised agency or from the Designated Counters provided for

the purpose in the 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.

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 will 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 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.

10.3. 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).

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

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 that has electronically filed scanned copies of the document.

11. Access to the Electronic Data of the Action

Access 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.

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.

13. 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 Registrar/

Judge-in-charge or such official designated for this purpose to the e-mail address of the

advocates or parties, if available. E-mail IDs of Registrar/ Judge-in-charge or such official

designated for this purpose will be published on the Court website to enable the

recipients to verify 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

within the prescribed time on any working day. For computing the time at which e-filing

is made, Indian Standard Time (IST) will apply.

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

14.2. E-filing through Designated Counters will be permissible up to 15.30 hours on any

court working day. On-line e-filing carried out after 15.30 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 1100 to 1530 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.

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. Procedure for Filing Caveat

All caveats can be filed on-line when the the facility is enabled in the efiling module.

16. 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 office of the Court will

wherever required prepare hard copies for official use.

17. 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

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

time by the Court.

18. Residuary provisions

18.1. 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.

18.2. 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 have to be provided to the

Jharkhand Gazette (Extraordinary), Saturday, 31^stJuly, 2021

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 Registrar or Judge-in-charge on a written request being made by the

defendant(s)/respondent(s).

18.3. The Shrestidar in case of District Courts and Officer designated for the said

purpose in case of Tribunals will communicate the objections, if any, regarding the cases

filed by email/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 email/SMS.

19. 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

Registrar/ Judge-in-charge for requisite assistance/advice.

By order of the Court,

Akhil Kumar,

Registrar General (I/c)

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झारखड राजक य मुणालय

झारखड राजक य मुणालय, राँची वारा काशत एवं मुत

राँची वारा काशत एवं मुत,

झारखड गजट

झारखड गजट (असाधारण

असाधारण)

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