ELECTRONIC
FILING (E-FILING) IN THE HIGH COURT AND DISTRICT COURTS OF HIMACHAL PRADESH
RULES, 2022
Rule - 1. Short Title, Applicability and Commencement.
These Rules shall be called "Electronic
Filing (e-Filing) in the High Court and District Courts of Himachal Pradesh
Rules, 2022".
These Rules shall be applicable to the High
Court of Himachal Pradesh and to the District Courts and Tribunals over which
it has supervisory jurisdiction.
These Rules shall come into force from the
date of publication in the Himachal Pradesh Rajpatra.
Rule - 2. Preface.
These Rules will apply to online e-filing and
e-filing through Designated Counters and facilities provided for e-filing,
including e-Service centers. 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.
Rule - 3. Definitions.
(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)
"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.
(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.
(4)
"Physical
Filing" means Actions and pleadings filed as hard copies.
(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.
(6)
"District
Courts" means and includes the courts established and functioning under
the control and supervision of the High Court.
(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.
(8)
"Evidence"
means and includes evidence as defined under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
(9)
"High
Court" means the High Court of Himachal Pradesh.
(10)
"Objections"
means and includes deficiencies and errors pointed out by the Registry in
relation to the Actions instituted in the Court.
(11)
"Opposite
Party" means defendant(s), respondent(s), judgment debtor(s) and
non-applicant(s).
(12)
"Party"
means appellant(s), plaintiff(s), petitioner(s), complainant(s) and
applicant(s).
(13)
"Pleadings"
means pleadings filed in support or defence of an Action including affidavits,
additional affidavits and supplementary affidavits.
(14)
"PDF"
means an electronic document filed in a portable document format.
(15)
"PDF/A"
means an ISO-standardized version of the Portable Document Format (PDF)
specialized for the digital preservation of electronic documents.
(16)
"Registry"
means the Registry of the Court.
(17)
"Statement
of Defence" means and includes written statements, replies, counter
affidavits and additional or supplementary affidavits.
(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.
(19)
"Third
Party" means and includes any person or entity seeking to become a party
or to intervene in an Action.
(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.
Rule - 4. General Instructions.
(1)
Online
e-filing shall be made by visiting the web portal of the Court, namely:
https://www.hphighcourt.nic.in/
(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)
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 stipulated.
(4)
The
size of the e-file should not exceed 20 MB. In case the file size exceeds 20
MB, the Advocate or litigants should visit any one of the Designated
Centres for enabling e- filing through the intranet.
Rule - 5. Steps for Registration.
(1)
Person
other than Advocates and litigants in person who are already registered on the
Court web portal will take following steps to register themselves.
(i)
Advocates
(a)
Should
visit the web portal (https://www.hphighcourt.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 ID- card (in PDF format only).
(ii)
Litigants
in person
(a)
Should
visit the web portal (https://www.hphighcourt.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).
(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 Actions 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. 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.
Rule - 6. 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).
Rule - 7. Formatting.
(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 : 2 cm
• Bottom Margin : 2 cm
• Left Margin : 4 cm
• Right Margin : 4 cm
• Alignment : Justified
• Font : Times New Roman
• Font size :16
• Line spacing :1.5
• Other : For heading, font size should be
18, Times New Roman
• If any document is typed in local language
in Trial Courts, it must be prepared using xxx Unicode Font 16.
(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.
(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 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.
Rule - 8. Digital Signatures.
(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 singed by the party concerned and/or their Advocate
in accordance with rules and it shall thereafter be scanned and uploaded.
(2)
A
list of recognized Digital Signatures Providers and the procedure involved in
appending single or multiple signatures is set out in Appendix-IV.
(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.
Rule - 9. Dos and Don't's.
(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.
(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 and
replications, rejoinders, affidavits and evidence in a pending case are set out
in Appendix - I.
(3)
Once
e-filing is accepted, the filing or registration number shall be notified to
the Advocate or litigant in person.
(4)
In
case on-line e-filing includes audio and/or video files, the Administrator
shall generate a hash value.
(5)
Special
Characters are not allowed while e-filing Memo of Parties and Advocate remarks.
(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.
(7)
Online
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.
Rule - 10. Payment of court Fees/Other Charges.
Court fees and other charges can be paid
either electronically by purchase on the online facility provided by the
authorized 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.
Rule - 11. Retention of Originals.
(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.
(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.
(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 Instrument 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.
(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.
Rule - 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.
Rule - 13. Exemption from E-Filing.
Exemption from online 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.
Rule - 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 the 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.
Rule - 15. Computation of Time.
(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.
(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 16.00 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.
(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 10:00 A.M. to 04:00 P.M. 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.
(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.
Rule - 16. Procedure for Filing Caveat.
All caveats can be filled on line.
Rule - 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 wherever required prepare hard copies for
official use.
Rule - 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 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.
Rule - 19. Residuary Provisions.
(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.
(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).
(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.
Rule - 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 for
requisite assistance/advice.