NEW DELHI: Sensitive case files have gone missing from some of the top high courts in the country in the last 10 years. The information gathered by the Union law ministry reveals that at least 149 case files have been missing - highest 106 from the Calcutta high court .

The other high courts (HCs) which have reported about missing files include the Rajasthan HC where 31 such files have gone missing, the Chhattisgarh HC has reported 12 and one by the Allahabad HC .

The government has not disclosed details of the files or the cases where no court records are available anymore. When the matter was raised in Parliament in a written question, minister of state for law PP Chaudhary said the Supreme Court and many of the high courts have taken corrective measures and have installed CCTV cameras and started digitising case files.

Security vaults have also been installed by various HCs for the safekeep of sensitive case files. Movement of files are monitored and recorded with physical verification and digitization of records.

"The government is considering digitizing all case files for their proper and safe preservation to avoid losses of case files and important documents," the minister said in response to Parliament question last week. The digitisation of court records of all High Courts, district and subordinate courts are also under process, he said.

"Digitization of case records of High Courts across the country has been initiated and is at varying levels of implementation. The process of digitization of case records in the Supreme Court is in progress, where 5,65,522 case files of disposed of matters and 41,397 case files of live matters have been scanned till date," Chaudhary said.

Supreme Court has reported that no case files have been missing but it has installed various safety and security measures including CCTV, safe vaults, movement registers, physical verification and digitisation to avoid loss of any case files and document.

The Hyderabad HC has reported that it has installed closed circuit cameras and restricted movement of outsiders in the administrative block besides digitization of pending and disposed of records. The Delhi High Court already has CCTV cameras installed and its digitization drive of case files started in 2006. So far, all files of decided cases up to December 2017 have been digitized by the HC, the minister informed.

