What measures can facilitate e-courts in delivering delayed justice?

By Anjali 14 Minutes Read

Based on the National Policy & Action Plan for Implementation of ICT^[1] in the Indian Judiciary – 2005 which was submitted by the e-Committee, the e-Courts Project was intellectualized. The Supreme Court of India had a concept to alter the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts.

E-committee is a body established by the Government of India in the enactment of a proposal acknowledged from Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India to create an e-Committee to support him in voicing a National policy on mechanisation of Indian Judiciary and counsel on technological communication and management associated changes.

It is a Pan-India Project, which is monitored and financed by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India meant for the District Courts throughout the country.

ENVISIONS OF THE PROJECT-

• To offer economical & time-bound citizen centric facilities providing as detailed in e-Court Project Complainant’s Charter.
• To expand, establish & execute decision support systems in courts.
• To mechanise the processes to provide clarity in the availability of information to its stakeholders.
• To improve judicial productivity, both qualitatively & quantitatively, to get the justice delivery system reasonable, available, cost-effective, obvious, reliable, and clear.

PHASE I: E – COURTS INTEGRATED MISSION MODE PROJECT –

The e-Committee was established in 2004 to draw up an action plan for the ICT enablement of the Judiciary with the Supporter in Chief along with Ad-hoc Chairman as the Chief Justice of India. The Government approved the computerization of 14,249 district & subordinate Courts under the project by March 2014 with a total cost of Rs. 935 crores. The e-Courts project aims to provide assigned services to complainants, lawyers, and the judiciary by widespread computerisation of district & subordinate courts in the country and development of ICT enablement of the justice system. The plan is being executed by the National Informatics Centre. A project examining committee assembles monthly to observe the progress of the project. The Handling Committee at each High Court supervises the implementation of the project in their particular High Court. As of 30/09/15, more than 95% of the required activities have been finalized.

The ICT structure of the Supreme Court and the High Court has also been updated. Improvement of other activities of the project as of 30/09/15 are given below:

• Laptops to Judicial Officers: Laptops have been given to 14,309 judicial officers.
• Software: An application software, Case Information System (CIS), has been established and made available for implementation at all computerized courts. The entry of data of past cases has been commenced, and data over 3 crore cases are accessible online.
• Judicial Service Centre: Judicial Service Centre (JSC) has formed at all computerized courts which operate as a single screen for filing petitions and applications by complainants and lawyers.
• Change Management & Training: As an element of the Change Management exercise, over 14,000 Judicial Officers have been skilled in the usage of UBUNTU-Linux OS & over 4000 court staff have been skilled in CIS software.
• Process Re-engineering: e-Committee has started the Process Reengineering (PR) practice; PR Committees have been put up in all High Courts to survey and suggest interpretation in current rules, processes, procedures, and forms.
• Video Conferencing services in courts and jails: A Video Conferencing (VC) trial has been introduced in five districts under the control of the e-Committee. Based on the trial, VC is being rolled out in leftover 490 places across the country during the Phase-I expansion period.
• Service Delivery & National Judicial Data Grid: The national e-Courts portal i.e. http://www.ecourts.gov.in  is effective now. The portal provides online services of details of case entry, cause list, case status, regular orders, and judgments to complainants.

PHASE II:  

e-Committee of the Supreme Court authorised Policy and Action Plan Document for Phase II of the e-Courts Project in January 2014. The planned initiatives as stated in the Policy Document are as below:

• Development of computer infrastructure in courts as contrasted to Phase I: In Phase I, 1+3 computers were given to courts. But Phase I has proved that this amount was low for efficient and best ICT enablement. Considering the situation, the Policy Document recommends that the hardware be improved from 1+3 to 2+6, per court. Therefore, 14,249 phase I Courts will be given an additional 1+3 computers.
• Strengthening the system of serving notices and summons: This is intended to be strengthened through the provision of verification of devices for procedure servers at Court Facilities.
• The option of desktops /laptops: For the computer base, the Policy Document offers for purchasing of either desktop with UPS or laptop depending upon appropriateness and economy.
• Computer hardware District Legal Service Authorities & Taluka Legal Service Committees: The office of DLSA & TLSC are required to work in a cycle with the Court processes for the shouldering of Lok Adalat. This requires the DLSA and TLSC office to be combined with the rest of the Court’s complex ICT infrastructure. Computer infrastructure is therefore planned to be given to DLSAs and TLSCs.
• Computer Hardware for State Judicial Academies: Phase II of the Project will give the resources for ICT Infrastructure for setting up of a Computer Lab for each SJA.
• Information cabins at each court complex: These cabins will give services such as case status and daily order sheets to complainants without visiting court officials.
• Computerization of Court libraries: The libraries of the courts will soon be computerized. An Integrated Library Management System has been successfully installed in the Supreme Court. The Policy has proposed to equip all High Courts and District Courts with ILMS.
• Video-conferencing with prisons: The Phase II will include the balance courts and parallel prisons and will not only be used for the imprisonment of under trial prisoners but also to track evidence where necessary by the presiding officer of the court.
• Solar energy for power backup: it is also included in Phase I, but there is no provision of power back-up for thin clients, printers, and other components. For this, the Policy Document recommends utilizing solar energy, as an alternative source, being environment friendly and available.
• Service Delivery through the use of cloud computing: It will reduce the need to use technical manpower at specific court complexes.
• Restoring, up-gradation and customisation of CIS software
• Systems for timely and frequent updating of data by laying down rules for updating and improving connectivity to accelerate data updating to NJDG by all courts.
• Discontinuation of the handbook: The Policy Document proposes discontinuation of manual registers and to be maintained only in e-form.
• Facilitating court and case management through Management information system
• Mobile-based service delivery through SMS and Mobile Apps: The Policy Document foresees the preparation of mobile phone tools on various mobile platforms for most recent case-related information, & SMS Gateway based structure to enable push and pull centered SMS for complainants and lawyers.
• Scanning & digitization of case records: Case records will be scanned & digitized in Phase II of the project. These will be changed to a Document Management System for later recovery and will encourage safe and orderly preservation of records.
• Court record room managing computerization: The digitized documents/case records relating to a particular court will be automatically produced in the court at the time of the hearing.
• Judicial Knowledge Management System: The JKMS will comprise a complete suite of answers and facilities such as Integrated Library Management Software & accessible to beneficiaries online for relaxed access of Legal Research Documents, Reports of Committee/Commission, Law Articles, Circulars, Instructions, High Court Rules, etc.
• Capacity building: Capacity building exercise to enable the human resources of the judicial system ineffective use of ICT infrastructure is needed to be carried out at regular intervals. In phase-I, 14k Judicial Officers and 4k court staff were taught and under Phase-II the same exercise will be repeated for remaining officers and staff.
• Process Mechanization: The study of processes for the ability to automate further will be repeated in Phase II of the project also, for which the Judicial Process Reengineering training will be taken up to explore further computerization of processes with the latest trends in technology. A few of the initiatives planned to be taken up in Phase II will comprise

(a) Automation of Process Working to effectively tackle the issue of postponements due to non-service or late service of Court Process,

(b) Court Registers in only e-Form

(c) e-Filing did by e-filing Portal for High Courts and the District Judiciary to ease online e-filing of cases,

(d) Judicial Economical Accounts Book Maintaining Practice through Computerized Financial Accounting Method, and

(e) Administrative Procedure Automation such as file change and tracking, leave management, employee information management system, etc.

The targets proposed to be accomplished with a project timeline of three years during

e-Court Phase II:

1. Computerization of about 5751 new courts
2. Enhanced ICT enablement of current 14,249 computerized courts with extra hardware.
3. Connecting all courts across the country to the NJDG by WAN & additional unnecessary connectivity.
4. Citizen centric features such as Centralized Filing Centres and touchscreen-based Cabins in each Court Complex.
5. Provision of laptops, printers, UPS, and connectivity to Judicial Officers not included under Phase I and replacement of outdated hardware offered to Judicial Officers under Phase I.
6. Installation of VC service at 2500 remaining Court Complexes & 800 remaining jails.
7. Computerization of SJAs, DLSAs, and TLSCs.
8. Creating a strong Court Management System by digitization, document management, Judicial Information Management, and learning tools management.
9. Induction of Cloud network and solar energy resource at Court Complexes.
10. Enabling improved performance of courts through modification of management and process re-engineering and enhancement in process servicing through hand-held devices.
11. Improved ICT enablement through e-filing, e-Payment, and usage of mobile functions.
12. Citizen centric service delivery

A consolidation of all the projects and methods planned to be taken up and installation of the elements planned in Phase-II of the project will result in multiplatform public services for the complainants under the Charter of Services. The Charter of Services will operate as a leading standard to make Phase-II of the Project as complainant service-centric as probable. Lawyers will get a daily cause list through SMS, email, and on the website. One of the main advantages of computerization of courts will be the computerization of workflow supervision. This would enable the courts to practice greater control over the supervision of cases in the schedule. The services predicted under the project will thus provide to all stakeholders including the judiciary, complainants, and lawyers. ICT enablement will get the running of courts effective and visible, which will have an overall constructive impact on the justice delivery system. It is foreseen that as the project evolves and technology grows, essential additions will be made to the Contract of Services.

^[1] Information & communication Technology(ICT)

Anjali