e-Courts Phase III

Source: Indian Express
GS II: Important aspects of governance, transparency and accountability, e-governance- applications, models, successes, limitations, and potential; citizens charters, transparency & accountability and institutional and other measures

Overview

1. News in Brief
2. About e-Courts Project
3. National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)

Why in News?

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister has approved the eCourts Project Phase III as a Central Sector Scheme spanning four years with a financial outlay of Rs.7210 crore

News in Brief

• India’s eCourts Mission Mode Project is a crucial initiative that aims to improve access to justice through the use of technology.
• This project has been implemented as part of the National eGovernance Plan since 2007.
• It is designed to enable the Indian Judiciary with ICT.
• The successful completion of Phase II of the project in 2023 has paved the way for Phase III, which is rooted in the philosophy of “access and inclusion”.
• The e-Courts Project aims to make the judicial system more accessible and inclusive for all, and is aligned with the vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji’s “Sabka Sath, Sabka Vikas and Sabka Vishwas”.
• By leveraging technology, the e-Courts Project aims to transform the way justice is delivered in India, making it more efficient, transparent, and accessible to all.

About e-Courts Project

• The eCourts initiative digitizes a number of court procedures in order to create a system for delivering justice that is quick, inexpensive, accessible, transparent, and responsible.
• The National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary – 2005 served as the conceptual framework for this project.
• The Indian Government’s eCommittee, which was established at the Chief Justice of India’s suggestion and with the goal of transforming the Indian Judiciary through court ICT enablement, produced the National Policy.
• All significant stakeholders, including the judiciary, the high courts, the district and subordinate courts, and the citizens/litigants/lawyers/advocates, are catered to by the project’s services.
• The automation of case management improves visibility and aids in the swift resolution of cases by courts.
• The information on cases, orders, and verdicts is available to citizens through the centralized portals for the District, Subordinate, and High Courts.

e-courts.gov.in

• On 7th August 2013, Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India launched the e-Courts National portal ecourts.gov.in of the eCourts Project.
• More than 2852 Districts and Taluka Court Complexes have secured their presence on the NJDG portal ecourts.gov.in and are providing Case Status and cause lists online with many of them also uploading orders/judgments.
• The data of more than 7 crore pending and disposed of cases and 3.3 crore orders/judgments of District Courts in India is available on NJDG at present.

e-Courts Project Phase-I

• In Phase-I of the eCourts Project beginning in 2007.
• A large number of Court Complexes, Computer Server Rooms and Judicial Service Centres were readied for the computerization of the District Courts.
• The District and Taluka Court Complexes covered in Phase-I were computerized with the installation of hardware, LAN and Case Information Software (CIS), for providing basic case-related services to the litigants and the lawyers.
• A large number of District Courts launched their websites for the convenience of the different stakeholders.
• The Change Management exercise was undertaken to train the Judicial Officers and Court Staff in the use of computers and the Case Information System (CIS) was successfully implemented.
• The Process Re-Engineering exercise was initiated to have a fresh look on the process, procedures, systems and Court Rules in force in the different District Courts under High Courts.
• The Phase-I concluded with extended timelines up to 30th March 2015.

e-Courts Project Phase-II

• Received approval of Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India on 8th January 2014.
• The government of India sanctioned the project on 4th August 2015.
• It provides for High Courts as the Implementing Agency, of the project under its jurisdiction.
• In Phase-II, the covered courts are provisioned additional hardware, whereas the uncovered Courts of Phase-I and the newly established Courts were provisioned hardware, LAN etc.
• The infrastructure Model provides for adopting Cloud Computing Architecture.
• All the remaining Court Complexes are provisioned to be connected with Jails and desktop-based Video Conferencing.
• Also be used for recording evidence in sensitive cases.
• The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) will be further improvised to facilitate more qualitative information.

e-Courts Project Phase-III

• The Centrally Sponsored Scheme of eCourts Phase III is being implemented under the joint partnership of
  • Department of Justice
  • Ministry of Law & Justice
  • Government of India
  • e-Committee
  • Supreme Court of India.
• In a decentralized manner through the respective High Courts to develop a judicial system that would promote ease of justice by making the system more accessible, affordable, reliable, predictable, and transparent for all stakeholders.

National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)

• The Supreme Court recently onboarded its case data on the National Judicial Data Grid.
• The NJDG portal is a national repository of data relating to cases instituted, pending and disposed of by the courts across the country.
• It is a database of orders, judgments and case details of 18,735 District and subordinate Courts and High Courts created as an online platform under the eCourts Project.
• Its key feature is that the data is updated in real-time and has granular data up to the Taluka level.
• The platform has been developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
• Currently, litigants can access case status information of 23.81 crore cases and more than 23.02 crore orders/judgments.

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