The main legal point established in the judgment is that while e-filing provides transparency and efficiency in the administration of justice, the digital divide in the country must be addressed to ensure that no segment of the citizens is unable to access justice through e-filing.

JUDGMENT :

Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud, CJI.

1. Thirty-nine Debt Recovery Tribunals¹[“DRTs”] and five Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals²[“DRATs”] have been constituted under the Recovery of Debts and Bankruptcy Act 1993³[ “1993 Act”].

2. The Department of Financial Services in the Union Ministry of Finance issued a notification on 23 January 2020 by which the Debt Recovery Tribunals (DRTs) and Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunals (DRATs) Electronic Filing Rules 2020⁴[“2020 Rules”] were notified. Originally, the e-filing of pleadings and applications was made optional. On 22 July 2021, a notification was issued by which the e-filing of cases involving a value of Rs 100 crores and above was made mandatory. At a conference of the Chairpersons of DRATs and the Presiding Officers of DRTs on 9 June 2022, it was recommended that e-filing should be made mandatory, irrespective of the amount involved in the proceedings.

3. On 31 January 2023, a notification was issued by the Union government in exercise of powers under Section 36 of the 1993 Act for amending the Electronic Filing Rules so as to make e-filing of pleadings by applicants mandatory. Any other form of filing, it is provided, shall not be taken on the record.

4. These proceedings under Article 32 of the Constitution have been instituted to challenge the provisions of amended Rule 3 of the E-filing Rules and for a direction to the DRTs and DRATs across the country to continue with hybrid filing of pleadings and applications before them.

5. Notice was issued in these proceedings on 24 February 2023.

6. Pursuant to the order issuing notice, a counter affidavit has been filed by an officer in the Department of Financial Services of the Union Ministry of Finance. Besides setting out the sequence leading up to the amendment to the E-filing Rules, the affidavit states that prior to the issuance of the notification dated 31 January 2023, an analysis was carried out of the filing of cases before the DRTs. It was observed that in respect of cases where the value is less than Rs 100 crores, the percentage of e-filed cases was approximately 25.89% in the case of Original Applications⁵[“OAs”] and 20.84% in the case of Securitization Applications⁶[“SAs”]. This was when e-filing for cases involving a value of less than Rs 100 crores was not mandatory prior to 31 January 2023. As regards cases involving an amount of Rs 100 crores and above, the percentage of e-filed cases was 15.87% in the case of OAs and 23.81% in SAs. On the basis of the above data, it has been submitted that even smaller borrowers were filing their cases through e-filing even when it was not mandatory. The percentage of e-filed cases to the total filed cases where the suit amount was Rs 50 lakhs or below was 27.46% of OAs filed and 20.63% of SAs filed. The affidavit indicates that mandatory e-filing, besides facilitating compliance with timelines, facilitates 24x7 filing by litigants even from remote places with the help of the internet. The total number of e-filed applications across all DRTs in the country during the period between 1 February 2023 and 2 March 2023 was 10,415.

7. The counter affidavit states that help desks for facilitating stakeholders for hassle free e-filing of cases have been set up at DRTs and DRATs where currently, 90 staff members are working as Technical Assistants and Data Entry Operators for facilitating e-filing. They are stated to be assisting internal and external stakeholders in the resolution of functional and technical difficulties. Besides this, it has been stated that a help desk option is available on the e-filing website of DRTs and DRATs where users can log their requests/grievances to be addressed on priority. A three-tier grievance redressal mechanism has, therefore, been provided. The counter affidavit has indicated that comprehensive training programmes were conducted by the Department of Financial Services in coordination with the DRTs/DRATs for making litigants and members of Bar Associati