The legal community in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry is gearing up for a major confrontation with the judiciary. The Joint Action Committee (JAC) of various advocates' associations has announced a decisive plan to lay siege to the Madras High Court on January 7. This dramatic escalation comes as a direct opposition to the mandatory e-filing system recently introduced across all subordinate courts in the state.
Core Demands and Resolutions
The decision for this high-stakes protest was finalized during a coordination committee meeting held in Madurai on Monday. The central resolution demands the immediate withdrawal of a circular issued by the Madras High Court. This circular made electronic filing of cases compulsory from December 1. The lawyers insist that this mandate should be revoked until there is a significant and uniform improvement in basic infrastructure across all courts.
S Prabakaran, a senior advocate and the President of the Tamil Nadu Advocates Association, clarified the stance. He stated that the legal fraternity is not inherently against the e-filing system. Their primary demand is that physical filing of cases by both advocates and litigants should continue to be permitted as an alternative. To pressure the authorities, court work has already been boycotted since December 5. The planned siege represents the next, more intense phase of this agitation.
The Practical and Financial Hurdles
Advocates on the ground have highlighted severe practical obstacles that make the forced transition to e-filing burdensome. T Arun Kumar, an advocate, explained a key technical issue. The e-filing process requires documents to be submitted in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) format. Generating this format necessitates a special OCR scanner, which can cost around ₹40,000 – a significant investment not every lawyer can afford.
"If we resort to using a computer centre for this service, they charge ₹10 per page, plus additional service and internet fees," Kumar added. He pointed out that these extra costs will inevitably increase the overall expense of litigation for clients. Furthermore, advocates complain of inadequate training for staff handling the e-filing process and frequent server malfunctions, which create major disruptions in their work.
Boycott of Training and Mobilisation
In a show of unified resistance, the JAC has also announced a boycott of all e-filing training programmes scheduled to be conducted via video conferencing in the near future. The committee is now focused on mobilizing advocates in large numbers from across the state to ensure a strong presence at the Madras High Court on the designated protest day. This collective action underscores the depth of discontent within the legal community regarding the pace and conditions of digital transition in the judiciary.
The upcoming protest on January 7 is set to be a critical moment, testing the implementation of digital reforms against the practical realities faced by legal practitioners in Tamil Nadu's courtrooms.
