Need to Revise Laws of Limitation so as to Keep Pace with IT-Advances

Almost 13 years have passed after the enactment of Information Technology Act 2000, but the Indian Legislature, Supreme Court and High Courts have yet to keep pace with the Advances in Information Technology (IT), e-Governance, digitisation of Court-processes etc, in that:-

There is no move to examine, review, modify and update the Laws of Limitation, viz. Limitation Act 1963, Supreme Court Rules 1966 (revised in 2013) and Rules framed by various High Courts on the computation of Limitation Period when an Order or Judgment (appealed against) is obtained from the official website of Supreme Curt or a High Court or a District Court AND there is delay between the Date of Pronouncement of that Order/Judgment and the Date the same is made available on the official website of the concerned Court. The same goes for Computerised Copies of Orders/Judgments obtained from the Registry of the concerned Courts.

In the case of Certified Copies (authenticated copies) of the said Orders/Judgments, however, the period taken by the Registry from the Date of Application for a Copy of the Order/Judgment and the Date the Copy was made available (i.e. prepared, signed & sealed) is excluded from the Limitation Period.

It is pertinent to add that several Courts, including Supreme Court, allow unauthenticated copies of Orders/Judgments to be filed in Appeals -- provided that the same are sworn/affirmed as true by the Appellant himself/herself.

But the aforesaid Act and Rules are silent as to the period to be excluded for the purpose of computing ‘Limitation’ on account of the time that has elapsed between the pronouncement of an Order or Judgment and the uploading of the said Order or Judgment to the official website of the concerned Court, or the period for which Computerised Copy was not made available on account of the non-uploading of the said Order/Judgment to the server of the IT-Agency which is responsible for supporting e-Governance of Judiciary. The same goes for the period for which judicial file was not made available for Inspection-cum-noting down of the said Order/Judgment in long hand by the Appellant or his/her Counsel.