Explained: How to file online petitions in Telangana High Court

Hyderabad: In the wake of the changing lifestyle due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the courts too switched to accepting online petitions and hearings. The Telangana High Court has further extended the suspension of regular judiciary processes till September 5, 2020, or until further orders and in this context, let us understand how e-filing is done.

NewsMeter explains the process of e-filing of urgent matters in the court by an advocate or the person in the party of the petition.

E-filing petitions on an urgent matter

The advocates or the parties in person can file an extremely urgent matter through e-filing along with all relevant documents, proof of payments of court fee, along with the gist of a case and the reason for taking up the matter urgently to the email IDs of the registrar general as follows

For filing the writ petition: nf.writwing-tshc@aij.gov.in

For filing a criminal matter: nf.criminalwing-tshc@aij.gov.in

For filing a civil matter: nf.civilwing-tshc@aij.gov.in

The registrar general, after scrutinising, places the matter before the Honourable Chief Justice for consideration. After satisfied with the nature and urgency of the matter, the Honourable Chief Justice will direct the registrar to list the same before the concerned bench.

Once the matter is considered for hearing, the advocates and the parties in person will be automatically intimated through SMS about the details of the time and the slot allotted for hearing their matter. Then the advocates and the parties in person are requested to present their arguments from their office or residence through video conference.

In case, the advocates or the party in person are unable to present themselves through a video conference from their office or home due to lack of any facility or internet, they can present their argument through a controlled room which is established at the High Court for the state of Telangana.

Instructions for joining a video conference

The High Court has decided to use CISCO Webex meetings software to conduct video conferencing. The invitation link and the meeting ID for appearing and viewing will be sent by the registrar to the given mobile number by SMS at least one hour before the scheduled hearing. Each link that will be shared to the advocate or party in person is not a sharable link and is unique so that any other person will be unable to join the video conference.

A senior advocate of the High Court of Telangana, NS Arjun Kumar said, “The High Court has made all arrangements for e-filing. Initially, the conference was through Zoom app but after knowing all the controversies around it, they shifted to CISCO Webex meetings software app which can be downloaded from Google Playstore and Apple store. The court has also evolved with dedicated email IDs for filing the writ, criminal matters and civil matters.

The only problem that is being faced is the delay in listening. Earlier, it used to take three days, after e-filing, it is taking 5 to 6 working days. The procedure is almost like before, the only difference is we don't have to take a lot of print outs, instead submit the scanned copies to the court. In the process, we save a lot of paper.