The Delhi High Court with the aim to provide stakeholders, access to digitalized records of certified copies of case documents, has notified "e-True Copy Rules of the High Court of Delhi, 2024" on 22nd April 2024.

The rules are aimed at providing e-True Copies of court records of the High Court as well as the District Courts under its control and supervision for which no fees will be charged.

The facility of providing e-True Copies shall be in addition to the existing facility of providing attested copies as per Chapter 5, Part B of Volume V, and Chapter 17 of Volume IV of the Rules of the High Court.

Highlights of the Rules are:

Rule 4.1: Electronic application for grant of e-True Copy shall be made only through the official web portal or mobile application of the High Court, District Court, as the case may be.

Rule 4.2: At a given time, a party entitled to e-True Copy of records and exhibits can move only one Electronic application in an action.

Rule 4.3: Anyone unable to access the web portal or mobile application may submit an application for such e-True Copy at the designated counters of the High Court, District Court for that purpose, as the case may be.

Rule 4.4: In actions where the e-True Copy of the Digitized record is a heavy data file and cannot be conveniently shared through the electronic mode, the Authorized officer may choose any other mode or may inform the applicant to furnish an electronic storage device within a reasonable period to enable sharing of the e-True Copy of the Digitized record.

Rule 4.5: In cases where the Digitized record is not available the electronic application for an e-True copy shall be treated as the one for a physical certified copy and the dealing official shall inform the applicant about the same. The applicant shall deposit the fee for a physical certified copy as per extant rules and on failure to deposit the fee, the application shall stand disposed of on expiry of 10 working days from the date of intimation to the applicant. Nothing herein shall apply, in case the applicant is a person with a disability or not residing in Delhi, the record of such Actions shall be digitized and an e-True copy shall be made available.

Rule 5.1: To file an Electronic application for e-True Copy, the persons entitled shall register on the official web portal of the High Court as per the procedure prescribed in the e-Filing Rules of the High Court of Delhi, 2021.

Rule 7.0: An application for e-True Copy can be made only through the web portal or mobile application of the High Court, District Court as the case may be. An acknowledgment slip will be generated upon successful submission of the Electronic application.

Rule 8.4: In case of rejection of the application for supply of e -True copy the applicant/stranger may challenge the same before the Officer in Charge of the concerned copying branch in case of High Court or to the Principal District & Sessions Judge concerned in case of District Courts or any authorized officer authorized by him.

Rule 12: Fee No fee shall be levied for the supply of e -True copies of the record of Actions.

Rule 13.3: An Electronic application for an e-True copy filed after 1600 hours on any day will be treated as filed on the date which follows the actual filing date, provided it is a court working day. Applications filed on a day declared as a gazetted holiday or when the High Court, District Court as the case may be, is closed will be regarded as having been filed on the next working day. For the computation of limitation, an electronic application for e-True Copy shall be subject to the same legal regime applicable to the physical filing, save and except as provided herein.

Rule 15: [Legal recognition of e-True copy] An authenticated e-True Copy shall be deemed to be a certified copy of the digitized record and have legal recognition as provided under the Information Technology Act 2000. e-True copy may be produced in proof of the contents of the public documents or parts of the public documents of which they purport to be copies.

Rule 18: [Power to remove difficulties] If any difficulty arises in giving effect to the provisions of these Rules, the Chief Justice of the High Court shall have the power to remove such difficulty, and the decision taken in that regard shall be final.

Read Rules in detail @LatestLaws.com:

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