Case Records At The Click Of A Mouse, Thanks To e-library
Searching High Court and Supreme Court judgements, landmark cases as well as local acts will be much easier now and available to bar associations of 12 Pune talukas at the click of a button as they now own an `e-library’.
The first of its kind venture in the country, the `e-library’, computers pre-loaded with legal data like case-laws and journals, was recently introduced by the Maharashtra and Goa Bar Council and Pune received its batch of 16 such computers on Monday.
Bar Council President Rajiv Patil and Additional Solicitor General of India Rajendra Raghuvanshi handed over the computers to the bar association presidents of Bhor, Baramati, Chinchwad, Daund, Ghodegaon, Ghodnadi, Indapur, Junnar, Khadki, Khed, Saswad and Vadgaon-Maval talukas in a ceremony organized at the Ashoka Hall at the district and sessions court premises, Shivajinagar on Monday evening.
The same evening also saw the inauguration of WiFi connectivity in Pune court’s library.
“Fifty laptops will be able to access the Internet at a time,” said Nandu Phadke, President of the Council’s Executive Committee. A few months back all the judges of the court had been given laptops and were also a part of a computer workshop.
“The computers have been pre-loaded with criminal law journals from the year 1965 to 2007. All High Court judgements from 1975 onwards, all the Supreme Court judgements from 1960 onwards, all the Bombay High Court judgements from 1901 onwards as well as the cases moved from the Bombay High Court to the Supreme Court have been fed into the computer.”
“Besides court decisions, the software also contains local acts of Maharashtra and all law manuals,” said Phadke.
The Bar associations receiving the e-libraries expressed their support to the initiative stressing that it was cost-effective and timesaving.
“This software comprises data which we lawyers have to refer on a daily basis. However, while senior lawyers can afford to buy the law books and journals the juniors may not be able to foot the high cost at which they are priced. Hence an e-library is a utilitarian option to these lawyers,” said B B Gadage, President of the Junnar Bar Association.
President of the Baramati Bar council, Adv Harish Taware said, “it is very important for the advocates of the rural Bar council to walk hand in hand with their urban counterparts, also it is imperative for them to be able to establish their own libraries.”.
“Using the e-library system they will not only be able to do the same but also access other such acts, laws etc and stay in touch with the urban advocates. There will be a total of seven softwares pre-loaded on the systems which will enable seniors and juniors to work more efficiently as they will have all material to refer at hand,” he said.
Former Pune Bar Association President and present Council member Harshad Nimbalkar revealed that the funds for the venture were sourced from the `library fund’.