The neutral citation aims to permanently identify a judicial decision independent of its mode of publication.
The neutral citation system would ensure that there is no subscription or other barrier to access court judgments and it would be available for all.
“The major advantage of neutral citation for the litigants, advocates, government department and students of law is that, same are Court assigned Citations having source of authenticity and accessible through internet. More importantly, there will be no access or subscription barriers ensuring easy access to all,” a notice by the High Court said.
The notice further said that the judgments available on the Karnataka High Court website would now have value addition like QR code to verify the authenticity of the content of judgments and digital signature without any watermark.
“Similarly, in the Judgments menu of the High Court website when navigated, there is a provision of search by citation number, in which, search of citation number by order date is provided, which further provides for viewing/downloading the Judgments corresponding with Case details, party details, Neutral Citation number and order date, same also now has value addition like QR code to verify the authenticity of content of Judgments and digital signature without any water mark,” it said.
The announcement regarding such neutral citation was first made by Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud in open court in February this year.
The neutral citation will be for all the judgments delivered by the Court and will be done in three phases, he had said.
In November last year, the Supreme Court had constituted a three-member panel of High Court judges to develop and implement a uniform and unique citation for judgments.
The Supreme Court, Delhi, Kerala, Madras and Bombay High Courts have already introduced neutral citations for their judgments.