Manual filing of advocate appearance slip in Supreme Court is set to become history as the top court is set to launch a new 'Advocate Appearance Portal' on January 1, 2023.

Put in place under the directions of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, the portal has been described as 'another step to make the registry working paperless'.

Once the portal is launched, the advocates-on-record may submit appearance slip through the same.

"Advocate Appearance Portal is another step to make the Registry working paperless under the directions of Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India, Dr. Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud... The Appearance Slip will be received online through the Advocate Appearance Portal and at the time of login, verification of the AOR is to be done by software through One Time Password (OTP)," a press release issued by the Court on Friday said.

The press release also said that the new portal would be an environment friendly step since it is estimated that online submission of appearance slip would save two lakh slips of paper annually.

The portal has been designed and developed to bring speed, accuracy and efficacy for recording the appearance of lawyers in the record of proceedings, the press release said.

"The existing process for Appearance Slip is cumbersome. The Appearance Slip is received through Advocates directly in the court or through email on the day of the case is listed and verification of the AOR is done manually in the existing process. Besides, names of Sr. Advocates and Advocates are typed manually in Record of Proceedings.

The new online process for appearance slip would be user friendly.

"Access to the appearance portal will be user specific i.e. The AOR will have access to his/her matter appearing in cause list of particular day and may mention appearances in the matter. The Appearance Slip will be received online through the Advocate Appearance Portal and at the time of login, verification of the AOR is to be done by software through One Time Password (OTP)," the press statement explained.

[Read press release]