Section 5 in District Courts of Madhya Pradesh Digitisation of Records Rules, 2016
5.
(1)Notwithstanding any period of preservation prescribed in these Rules, any physical record, may be eliminated after being retained and secured in electronic form in accordance with:(a)section 7 of the Information Technology Act, 2000; and(b)sub-section (4) of section 65-B of Indian Evidence Act, 1872.Note. - See Appendix No.-(Information Technology Act Section-7 and Indian Evidence Act, 1872, Section 65-B (4)(2)After digitisation, the original documents shall be returned to the party/any person duly authorised by the party to collect the same. In the event no one appears to collect the document within 1 month from the date of digitisation, three month's notice to receive the documents shall be given to the party concerned and in case the document is not collected within a period of three months, it shall be eliminated in accordance with the provisions of these Rules under the general superintendence of the District Registrar or, by the supervising Officer(s) as may be appointed by the District Judge for that purpose. The supervising officer so appointed shall be deemed to be the official responsible for the purposes of sub-section (4) of section 65-B of Indian Evidence Act, 1872.Provided that the original documents pertaining to title, educational achievements and creating personal rights shall not be eliminated for a period of 12 (twelve) years, from the date of digitisation or the date of final disposal of the lis from the highest Court, whichever is later.Provided further that original documents or historical, sociological, scientific and artistic value, as in the opinion of the District Judge, shall be permanently preserved.Provided further that administrative record pertaining to the previous 3 financial/calendar years shall not be eliminated.(3)Notwithstanding anything contained in the Madhya Pradesh Civil Court Rules, 1961 and Rules and order (Criminal) the entire judicial record of every case filed in and disposed of finally by the Courts shall be digitised and preserved permanently in the un-editable format and thereafter eliminated under the superintendence of the District Court Manager.(4)The District Court Manager shall certify under his physical and digital signatures that the entire judicial record of the given case has been digitised and electronically secured in accordance with section 7 of the Information Technology Act, 2000 and section 65-B (4) of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and is available in an un-editable, digitised format.(5)The scanned images/un-editable formatted documents of the judicial records after being certified by the Quality Control Team to be constituted by the District Judge, shall be written on microfilm rolls as per the technical specification prescribed by the High Court.(6)The digitised and electronically secured records shall be archived in following format to facilitate easy retrieval:(a)name of either party(b)Registration number(c)Filing number and date(d)date of Judgement/final Order(e)name of Presiding Judge.
