Bengaluru, (The Telegraph): Two Karnataka districts have shown the way forward by e-filing chargesheets through a dedicated network that automatically routes the documents to the respective courts in tamper-proof form.

The pilot project that started in 2014 has thrown up new possibilities in the way the judiciary and police function, with thousands of chargesheets having been e-filed from Mysore and Mandya. The state now plans to take the change to other districts.

Around 15,000 chargesheets have been filed so far, each carrying timestamps that prevent any kind of tampering, said an officer. "Some had to be filed physically because of technical problems," said the officer.

The documents are sent to the Karnataka High Court server, which routes them to the respective lower courts. Judges get printed copies in time for trial.

As opposed to the conventional way of filing when policemen lug hard copies to courts, the online mode allows police stations to directly file these documents without any human intervention. "It's as simple as sending an email," the officer said.

Another advantage is that the documents are available for reference to any officer with access to the system. "This saves time and manpower used in fetching copies when an officer needs the files for reference," the officer said.

The state plans to expand the system to cover all 900-odd police stations in a phased manner. "The only thing we need is better (storage) capacity in the high court (server). That's because of the size of chargesheets," said the officer.

While FIRs don't exceed six or seven pages, most chargesheets run into 100 to 200 pages and use up a lot of storage space. The CBI is known to file thousands of pages.

P. Ravindranath, additional-director general of police who heads the force's computer wing, said the pilot project was funded from central grants meant for e-governance programmes but added the state would need its own cash to expand the system to other districts.

The pilot project in Mandya and Mysore has lawyers excited. "I see it as a major time-saver. It takes months to prepare chargesheets. We now have at least a model of filing them quickly and efficiently," said senior high court lawyer G.R. Mohan.

But Mohan flagged a concern too. "My only worry is whether privacy of rape victims and minors accused of crimes would be compromised with the case papers available to officials or even others later," he said, urging the software's developers to keep this aspect in mind.

Rights activist Narendra Nayak voiced another worry. "Poor petitioners could be forced to pay extra money to get prints of chargesheets available only in digital form."