REGISTERED NO. PT.-40

The Bihar Gazette

EXTRA ORDINARY

PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY

1 ASVINA 1942(S)

(NO.PATNA 635) PATNA, WEDNESDAY, 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

PATNA HIGH COURT

———

Notification

23rd September 2020

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

225 AND 227 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA

No.103(R)/2020—Short Title, Applicability and Commencement.—These Rules will be

called e-filing Rules. They will be applicable to the High Court of Judicature at Patna and to the

District Courts and Tribunals over which it has supervisory jurisdiction.

These Rules will come into force from the date notified by the High Court.

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. The rules will apply to

such categories of cases as would be notified by the High Court. These Rules amend and consolidate

the existing Rules and Practice Directions.

2. Definitions

2.1.

Action: includes all proceedings instituted in the Court such as suits, criminal

complaints, appeals, civil or criminal writ petitions, revision petitions,

contempt petitions, execution petitions, arbitration petitions, probate cases and

interlocutory applications.

2.2.

Administrator: means the Registrar (IT) 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 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.

2.4.

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

2.5.

Designated Counters: means and includes those counters which find mention

in Appendix-I and those that may be included or excluded from Appendix -I

from time to time.

BIHAR GAZETTE (EXTRA) 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

2.6.

District Courts: means and includes the courts established and functioning

under the control and supervision of the High Court.

2.7.

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.

2.8.

Evidence: means and includes evidence as defined under the Indian Evidence

Act, 1872.

2.9.

High Court: High Court means the High Court of Patna.

2.10.

Objections: means and includes deficiencies and errors pointed out by the

Registry in relation to the Actions instituted in the Court.

2.11.

Opposite Party: means defendant(s), respondents, judgment debtor(s) and

non-applicant(s).

2.12.

Party: means appellant(s), plaintiff(s), petitioner(s), complainant(s) and

applicant(s).

2.13.

Pleadings: means pleadings filed in support or defence of an Action including

affidavits, additional affidavits and supplementary affidavits.

2.14

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

2.15.

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

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

2.16.

Registry: means the Registry of the Court.

2.17.

Statement of Defence: means and includes written statements, replies, counter

affidavits and additional or supplementary affidavits.

2.18.

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.

2.19.

Third Party: means and includes any person or entity seeking to become a

party or to intervene in an Action.

2.20.

Working Day: means and includes a day when the Registry of the Court is

working under the Calendar published or as directed by the Court.

3. General Instructions

3.1.

On-line e-filing shall be made by visiting the web portal of the Court, namely:

https://efiling.ecours.gov.in/br/

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 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 as stipulated by Hon’ble The Chief Justice from time

to time.

3.4.

The size of the e-file should not exceed 25 MB. In case the file size exceeds 25

MB, the Advocate or litigant should visit any one of the Designated Centres for

enabling e-filing through the intranet.

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 (https://efiling.ecours.gov.in/br/) 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).

BIHAR GAZETTE (EXTRA) 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

ii) Litigants in person

a) Should visit the web portal (https://efiling.ecours.gov.in/br/) 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, 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. 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 : 1.3"

• 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 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 inbuilt 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. The procedure for converting a

document into an OCR searchable PDF as mentioned above and as required in

clause 8.1 is set out in Appendix — III.

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 List of recognized Digital Signature Providers and the procedure involved in

appending single or multiple signatures is set out in Appendix — IV.

BIHAR GAZETTE (EXTRA) 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

7.3.

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.

8. Dos and Don't's

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, duly approved by the Registry. The procedure in this

behalf is set out in Appendix -V.

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, 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 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) (< >)

• 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

efiled 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 online 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.

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 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

BIHAR GAZETTE (EXTRA) 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

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 lA 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 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 first put up before the Registrar (List) or Joint

Registrar (Judicial) upon an application being made for that purpose in the following circumstances:

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

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 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.

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 (1ST) will apply.

14.2. E-filing through Designated Counters will be permissible up to 3.30 P.M. on any

court working day. On-line e-filing carried out after 3.30 P.M. 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 efiling between 9.00 A.M. to 3.30 P.M. on court

BIHAR GAZETTE (EXTRA) 23RD SEPTEMBER 2020

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. The procedure for this

purpose is set out in Appendix — VI.

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 Registry 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 for 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 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).

18.3. The Registry 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

Registry for 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.

By order of the Court.

NAWNEET KUMAR PANDEY,

Registrar General.