1. From time to time this Court has issued detailed directions as regards making available upto date versions of the State laws and Statutory Rules. Various orders have been passed by this Court from time to time. Detailed orders have been passed on this aspect on 6th February, 2015, 8 May, 2015, 29 September, 2015, 17 October, 2015, 2nd December, 2015, 23rd December, 2015, 21st January, 2016 and 10 February, 2016. Shri Kumbhakoni, learned Senior Counsel along with Shri Borkar, the learned Counsel who have been appointed as Amicus Curiae have held meetings not only with the Government officers but also with the Central Project Co-coordinator of the E-Court Project of this Court. Today, the learned Senior Counsel Shri Kumbhakoni tendered across the bar two different detailed notes on the subject. The same are taken on record and marked “C-1” and “C-2”, for identification. Need to have updated versions of the State Acts and Rules has been briefly summarized by Shri Kumbakoni. In the first paragraph of the note marked as “C-1” which reads thus:
1. Fundamental duty and function of Courts of law is to interpret and enforce Laws. It is needless to emphasis the importance of having an accurate versions of various statutes before the Law courts for discharging the divine duty of administration of justice. Not just the Hon. Judges but the citizens, more particularly the lawyers, who are duty bound to assist the Courts in discharging their duties, must have free access to these accurate versions of Laws. The eminent danger of causing miscarriage of justice solely on account of referring to an inaccurate text of a statue ought to have been a point of serious concern to the State. However, the State machinery exhibited total dereliction of its duty in this regard. Consequently, with a view to make available these accurate versions of various laws, this Hon. Court has not only entertained Public Interest Litigations but also has taken suo-motu actions by passing numerous orders as also by issuing various directions from time to time.”
2. One of the earlier orders of this Court refers to a direction issued by this Court in the year 1997 (1997 Mh.L.J 152) stating that updated copies of State bare Acts and Rules shall be made available by 30 April, 1997. It cannot be disputed that the said direction has not been implemented in its true letter and spirit. Before the State of Maharashtra came to existence, there was Bombay Code Series of both the State Acts and Rules which used to be updated regularly. After the State of Maharashtra came into existence, there was a Maharashtra Code Series which was being updated regularly and punctually by issuing correction slips. During last few years, neither an updated version of Maharashtra Code is available nor the updated version of the books of State Laws and Rules are being published by the State Government. As pointed out in one of the earlier orders and as submitted by the learned Amicus Curiae that unavailability of the updated version of the Acts and Rules directly affects the administration of justice. There is well known presumption that every citizen is presumed to know the law. The said presumption becomes meaningless as the latest versions of the State Acts and Rules are not at all available in any form. Therefore, by the aforesaid orders starting from 6 February, 2015, diverse directions were issued by this Court on making available updated versions on the website. Notwithstanding the said orders, no progress could be made by the State Government.
3. At the intervention of the learned Amicus Curiae and other learned counsel representing parties including the learned Government Pleader, now a solution is found. We must make a reference to the affidavit filed by the state of Shri Avinash Hiraman Bankar on 10 February, 2016. In the said affidavit, there is a reference to meetings held with the Central Project Coordinator of the E-Court Project of this Court. The outline of the project which was drawn with the assistance of the Central Project Co-ordinator Shri Nhavkar have been incorporated in paragraph 9 of the said affidavit which reads thus:
I. It is to be treated as total new project. Under the said project, it is necessary to design a Program of Page making and Act making in such manner, so that the following features can be included,-
1. Act name;
2. Preamble;
3. Definition;
4 Sections;
5 Marginal note;
6 Foot note;
7 Citation;
8 Amendment part.
These features will be carried into an independent columns, so that the ext would remain intact. The font size would be fixed. It would display the existing Act alongwith the amended text. The Act is amended in three ways, such as substitution, addition and deletion. All the text is to be preserved in pdf file only. Therefore, it requires fresh data entry of entire text.
II. This project would involve the following 4 stages;
(a) First stage is to appoint a “consultant”.
(b) Secondly, the consultant would work for fixing the programme technically and would develop the software according to the need. The consultant would provide the estimates about the time bound programme and its costs;
(c) Thirdly, as per the recommendation of the consultant, necessary funds should be arranged; and
(d) Lastly, as soon as the fund is available, the actual work of data entry of every text of the Act would begin.
III. For monitoring entire functions, process and proof checking, additional manpower should be provided, as the project would be time-bound, and it would not be possible to undertake such activity in the existing staffing pattern having regard to the priority of legislative work.
IV. It would take about six to eight months for completing such process.
10. In view of the above, I humbly submit that, as the uploading and updating the State Acts on the website in an accurate and proper manner is highly technical and voluminous task, the Law and Judiciary Department needs some more time to do the task of process reengineering to initialise the entire process.”
4. As per the suggestions made by this Court, the learned Government Pleader contacted Dr. R. Premkumar, Registrar of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Powai, Mumbai. The letter dated 25 February, 2016 addressed by Dr. R. Premkumar to the learned Government Pleader is tendered across the Bar and marked “C-3” for identification. The communication refers that in principle, the IIT has agreed to extend its services. Clause (2) of the outline of the project incorporated above provide for an appointment of a consultant as a first step. The State Government will have to appoint IIT, Mumbai as the Consultants for the project. The IIT will have to submit a project report which will include development of software which will provide for real time updation of the State Acts and Rules. Needless to add that necessary facilities of search etc., will have to be also made available. We propose to issue directions in terms of what is incorporated in paragraph 9 of the aforesaid affidavit of Shri Bankar. Shri Bankar has stated that it will take about eight months time to complete the entire process starting with the appointment of Consultant.
5. Therefore, on the last date, we had requested the learned Amicus Curiae and other counsel representing various parties to work out what should be the interim measures. Now suggestions have been submitted by the learned senior counsel who is appointed as Amicus Curiae, marked as “C-2”. He has suggested that till the final measures are implemented, only the latest updated version of all Acts and Rules should be retained on the dedicated website which is already made available. Further suggestion is that as soon as there is an amendment made to the existing Acts or Rules, by deleting the existing updated versions, the amended versions should be uploaded so as to avoid any confusion. The suggestion is that this exercise be done after every amendment in a time bound schedule. It is pointed out that as soon as an Ordinance is issued or an amendment to Acts or Rules is made, within two days from its publication in the official gazette, the copies of the said gazette are received by the Legislature Branch of the Law and Judiciary Department of the State. For doing this exercise, apart from Ministry of Law and Justice other two Ministries, Industry and General Administration Department (IT) are involved. The suggestion made by Shri Kumbhakoni is that the representatives of the two Ministries with the Representative of the Law and Judiciary department and the office of the Directorate of Printing and Stationary should work as a team and ensure that the amended versions of the Acts and Rules are updated at the earliest. We may note here that important State Acts have been uploaded in E-Library on the official website of this Court. If the Deputy Registrar incharge of the Library gets gazettes containing the Acts of Legislature or Ordinance at the earliest, the updated versions can be also uploaded on the E-Library available on the Bombay High Court Website. We, therefore, propose to issue comprehensive directions on these aspects.
6. Even at the risk of repetition, we may note here that if the updated versions of the State Acts and Rules are not made available not only that it will adversely affect the administration of justice but the common man would be a real sufferer. Shri Borkar, the learned Counsel pointed out that on the State Government website only very recently issued government gazette are uploaded. He pointed out that old gazettes are available in the Department of Archives of the State Government. He urged that in several cases, old gazettes containing important notifications issued under the Statues or Rules as well as the gazette notifications containing amending Acts are required for a ready reference. His suggestion is that all old gazettes should be uploaded on the State Government Website so that they are readily available. Even this suggestion will have to be considered by the State Government. We find that in several Writ Petitions in this Court both of the Civil and Criminal sides, the Courts are required to repeatedly grant time as the Government Pleaders are not able to make available a copy of a particular notification or a particular amending Act. All this can be avoided if all the State Government gazettes including old gazettes are uploaded on the High Court website. The successors in office of the officers nominated shall continue to coordinate with each other for implementation of the orders passed by this Court.
7. Hence, we issue the following interim directions:
(i) The State Government shall implement the project, the outline of which is incorporated in paragraph (9) of the affidavit of Shri Avinash Hiraman Bankar dated 10 February, 2016 which is reproduced in this order;
(ii) The State Government shall take immediate steps for appointing IIT Mumbai as the Consultant in terms of the said Guidelines. The terms of the reference along with the work order be issued as expeditiously as possible and in any event within a period of six weeks from today;
(iii) The time line incorporated in the paragraph (9) of the affidavit shall become operative from the date on which the IIT submits the Project Report. Considering the urgency involved, needless to state that the IIT shall endavour to give priority to do the work of the preparation of Project Report which will include development of software;
(iv) As per the suggestion of the Court, the learned Government Pleader has suggested the names of the officers of the Law and Judiciary Department, General Administration Department (IT) department and the Directorate of Printing and Stationary. The officers suggested by the learned Government Pleader are (1) Shri Avinash H. Bankar, Draftsman-cum-Joint Secretary of Law and Judiciary Department; (2) Shri M. Shankarnarayan, Director of IT or his nominee Shri Somkuar, Desk Officer; and (2) Shri Dhamkar, Deputy Director of Directorate of Printing and Stationary;
(v) The aforesaid three officers shall coordinate with each other and ensure that as soon as a gazette containing Amendment Acts or Ordinance or amended Rules is published, within three working days from the date of publication, all the copies of the gazette are made available to the Law and Judiciary Department. This direction will apply to the newly enacted Laws, Statutory Rules as well;
(vi) Within a period of one week from the day on which gazette notifications are received by the Law and Judiciary Department of the State Government, latest updated versions of the State Laws and Rules shall be uploaded on the dedicated website and simultaneously, the older versions shall be deleted;
(vii) The Law and Judiciary Department shall ensure that as soon as copies of the gazettes as aforesaid are received, the same are scanned and forwarded to the Deputy Registrar of this Court, who is incharge of the Library on E-mail ID: judlibbhc@nic.in. The scanned copies shall be forwarded by E-mail at the said E-mail ID within two working days from the date on which the gazettes are received by the said Law and Judiciary Department. In case there is any difficulty in scanning, printed gazettes shall be forwarded to the Deputy Registrar within a period of two working days from the date on which the gazettes are received;
(viii) To avoid any delay, an endeavour shall be made by the Deputy Director of the Directorate of Printing and Stationary to forward soft versions of the gazettes to the Law and Judiciary Department in addition to the printed versions;
(ix) It is pointed out that the dedicated website is accessible only through Microsoft based Internet Explorer. An endeavour shall be made to make it accessible by use of all web based browsers such as Google Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc;
(x) Steps shall be taken within a period of six weeks from today for making available a link to the dedicated website used for uploading State Acts on the official website of the State Government;
(xi) Within a period of six weeks from today, steps shall be taken which will enable the users to access a particular statute or Rules and to save the same on his personal computer/devise in the PDF format in the same way that as the PDF versions of the orders of this Court are available on the High Court website;
(xii) Steps shall be taken to identify the statutory Rules which are required for day to day functioning of all the Courts. Steps shall be taken to upload the statutory Rules on the dedicated website within a period of three months from today. The updation of the said Rules shall be made in similar fashion, as directed above;
(xiii) The State Government shall favourably consider the suggestion of uploading all the old gazettes which are available in the department of Archives on the State Government Website by providing necessary search;
(xiv) Action taken report shall be submitted by the State Government reporting compliance with the aforesaid directions within a period of six weeks from today;
8. For considering the other direction to be issued, place the petitions on 3 March, 2016 under the caption of “Direction”.
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