Situation in district courts' record rooms 'grim', expedite process of weeding out files: Delhi HC

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court has observed that the situation of the district courts' record rooms where case documents are kept, is 'grim' and the process of weeding out the records needs to be done expeditiously besides being monitored on a regular basis.

The high court directed the principal district and sessions judges of all the district courts in Delhi to monitor the progress of weeding out of case records in their respective districts and take effective steps in this regard.

Regarding weeding out of the record, a bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet P S Arora was informed by the counsel for the Delhi High Court administration that necessary amendments have been already carried out, criterion for petty cases and cases for historical importance have been decided, committees to monitor weeding out have been constituted in each district court and around 52,000 files have already been weeded out.

According to the quarterly report from January to March 2024, a total of 1,91,512 files have been identified for weeding out from all district courts and till now 52,167 filed have been weeded out.

"However, this court cannot lose sight of the fact that the situation in record rooms of the district courts is grim and the process of weeding out of the record needs to be carried out expeditiously and monitored on a regular basis," the bench said.

It asked the principal district and sessions judges of all the district courts to file quarterly reports in this court and listed the matter for compliance on September 2.

The high court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) concerning the administrative procedure of acknowledging the filing of pleadings, documents and miscellaneous applications in the ongoing cases in the Delhi district courts.

The counsel for the high court submitted that the grievance raised by Karan S Thukral regarding the centralised filing of interim applications and their registration stands addressed, as the centralised filing system has been implemented in all the district courts.

The high court’s lawyer further stated that mandatory e-filing has been extended to all civil courts (including family courts) and criminal complaint cases in the district courts from April 1, 2024 and now the advocates and parties are required to file all interim applications and documents through the e-filing portal alone wherein every e-filing gets registered.

The high court had earlier asked all the district courts here to adopt a standardised online system for filing pleadings, documents and miscellaneous applications in the ongoing cases.