Lawyers’ chambers stacked with hardbound law books from floor to ceiling may soon be history.
An increasing number of advocates in the Madras High Court are embracing technology, preferring e-books to hardbound classics.
Not just readers, even authors of legal texts have begun to choose the e-route and the latest among them is designated senior counsel S. Ravindran, who has come up with the second edition of his book ‘Case Law on Domestic Enquiry’ in the form of a compact disc.
CD released
The foreword for the book is written by former Supreme Court judge F.M. Ibrahim Kalifulla.
The compact disc was released at the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Friday, in the presence of Justices T.S. Sivagnanam and N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court.
The author said that the entire proceeds of the sale, at ₹200 per CD, would be donated to the Labour Law Practitioners’ Association (LLPA), of which he is the honorary president.
Former High Court judge D. Hariparanthaman, himself a labour lawyer before his elevation, said the LLPA, that has been functioning for the last 30 years, was the only association in the State for labour law practitioners, consisting of both advocates and trade union leaders, interested in upholding the rights of the working class.
He pointed out that Mr. Ravindran had brought out hard copies of the first edition of the book in 2015 and had now chosen to release the second edition in the form of a CD to keep the costs low, because a hardbound book would have cost around ₹600 per copy, making it inaccessible to many.
668 judgments
The e-book has references to 668 judgments of the Supreme Court as well as various High Courts, arranged in 32 chapters, that can be easily accessed from the index page through hyperlinks.
In the revised edition, the author has added judgements that were delivered on the subject as recently as June.
Guide prepared
Meanwhile, a downloadable e-book prepared by judicial officer R. Arulmozhiselvi, a civil judge (senior division), on how to use Case Information System 3.0, the latest version of a software developed for lower courts, has been uploaded on the website of the Department of Justice under the Union Ministry of Law and Justice.
This is the first time that a book by a woman judicial officer from the State has found a place on the website of the Union Ministry.