With an aim to fast-track the disposal of pending cases, the government has been going for major transformation of court rooms into digital, paperless entity, according to The Indian Express report. So far, 342 jails and 488 district courts have got the facilities. A staggering 14,249 courts will get these facilities under the central government’s E-courts Mission Mode Project. These courts will get local area networks, computer hardware and standard application software, according to reports. Over 2.68 crore cases are still pending in several courts. However, judges, officials and legal researchers asserted that the change is visible. Karkardooma court in Delhi was one the courts which got this facilities long time back.
These courts have been connected to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG). In the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business 2018 report, NJDG was mentioned. It has been learnt that the grid has made it possible to generate case management reports on local courts, thereby making it easier to enforce contracts. The NJDG has made things more transparent. Apart from this, the real-time tracking and transcription of evidence have become easier.
Former Chief Justice of India J S Khehar had hoped that his dream of “paperless courts” would soon becomes a reality and hailed the support of the bar in his endeavour to digitise the justice delivery system.
“Every court order is available on the national grid. More importantly, each court can be tracked as to how many cases are pending for a year or five years or more. This has led to transparency. But the actual impact will be seen when the filing of cases are done digitally. It is being followed in the Delhi High Court. The same has to be adopted at all trial courts,” President of Delhi Judicial Service Association Rajesh Malik was quoted as saying by IE.
(This article originally appeared on on Financial Express Online on April 16, 2018)