Rope in IIT to upload laws on website: Bombay HC

The Bombay high court on Monday said the Maharashtra government could take the help of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to upload the state-published Acts on its website for the benefit of litigants and courts.

A bench, headed by Justice Abhay Oka, made the suggestion while hearing a petition filed by the high court administration seeking certain facilities for the courts.

Government pleader Abhinandan Vagyani said the state government was proposing to appoint a consultant by floating a tender to upload the state Acts on the government website so that they can become readily available.

The court remarked that this process might take more than six months, so the government can rope in experts from IIT-Bombay instead.

On behalf of the high court administration, senior counsel S.R. Nargolkar argued the government has its own panel of experts for software development from which it can appoint the consultants for this task.

Mr Nargolkar said copies of the Acts published by the government are often not available in the courts and the judges cannot rely on privately-published Acts because they may contain mistakes.

The petition also seeks separate enclosures for the minors who are examined under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act.

The next hearing would be on February 25.