MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE
(SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)
(a) to (c): With the objective of universal computerisation of all the District & Subordinate Court complexes, Department of Justice in close coordination with eCommittee of Supreme Court of India is implementing eCourts Mission Mode Project. In the phase-I of the project from 2011-2015, out of total outlay of Rs.935 crore, the Government incurred an expenditure of Rs. 639.41crore. In the phase- II of the project which is started in 2015, out of total outlay of Rs. 1670 crore, the Government has released a sum of Rs. 1620.72 crore till 07.02.2022 to various implementing agencies involved in the implementation of the project.As per information provided by eCommittee of Supreme Court of India total 18,735 District and Sub-ordinate courts have been digitised under the eCourts Project so far.Towards enhancement of ICT enablement of Courts, following initiatives have been taken under eCourts project by the eCommittee of the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice:
i. Under the Wide Area Network (WAN) Project, 2960 courts sites have been commissioned (as on 07.02.2022) with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.
ii. Case Information Software (CIS) which forms the basis for the e-Court services is based on customized Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) which has been developed by NIC. Currently CIS National Core Version 3.2 is being implemented in District Courts and the CIS National Core Version 1.0 is being implemented for the High Courts.
iii. A new software patch and user manual for COVID-19 management has also been developed to help in smart scheduling of cases.
iv. National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a database of orders, judgments and cases, created as an online platform under the eCourts Project. It provides information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of all computerized district and subordinate courts of the country. Litigants can access case status information in respect of over 19.81 crore cases and more than 16.61 crore orders / judgments pertaining to these computerized (as on 01.02.2022). Open APIs have been introduced in 2020 to allow Central and State Governments and institutional litigants including local bodies to access NJDG data to improve pendency monitoring and compliance.
v. As part of eCourts project, 7 platforms have been created to provide real time information on case status, cause lists, judgements etc. to lawyers/Litigants through SMS Push and Pull (2,00,000 SMS sent daily), Email (2,50,000 sent daily), multilingual and tactile eCourts services Portal (35 lakh hits daily), JSC (Judicial Service centres) and Info Kiosks. In addition, Electronic Case Management Tools (ECMT) have been created with Mobile App for lawyers (total 72.20 lakh downloads till 3rd January 2022) and JustIS app for judges (16,961 downloads till 2ndFebruary 2022). JustIS mobile app is now available in iOS as well.
vi. 17 Virtual Courts in 13 States/UTs have been operationalized to handle traffic challan cases. More than 1.24 crore cases have been handled by 17 virtual courts and in more than 21 lakhs (21,45,341) cases online fine of more than Rs. 221.07 crore has been realised till 02.02.2022.
vii. The Supreme Court of India emerged as a global leader by conducting 1,81,909 hearings (till 08.01.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period). The High Courts (57,39,966 cases and Subordinate Courts (1,08,36,087 cases) have conducted 1.65 crore virtual hearings till 30.11.2021. VC facilities have also been enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. Funds for 2506 VC cabins and VC equipment for 14,443 courtrooms have also been released. 1500 VC licenses have been procured to promote virtual hearings. A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers.
viii. New e-filing system (version 3.0) has been rolled out for the electronic filing of legal papers with upgraded features. Draft eFiling rules have been formulated and circulated to the High Courts for adoption. A total of 17 high Courts have adopted the model rules of e-Filing as on 31.12.2021.
ix. e-Filing of cases requires the option for electronic payment of fees which includes court fees, fines and penalties which are directly payable to the Consolidated Fund. A total of 16 High Courts have implemented ePayments in their respective jurisdictions. The Court Fees Act has been amended in 23 High Courts till 31.12.2021.
x. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) has been launched for technology enabled process serving and issuing of summons. It has currently been implemented in 26 States/ UTs.
xi. A new “Judgment Search” portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name, Judge Name, Act, Section, Decision: From Date, To Date and Full Text Search. This facility is being provided free of cost to all.
xii. To make effective use of database created through National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and to make the information available to public 30 LED Display Message Sign Board System called Justice Clocks, have been installed in 20 High Courts.
xiii. Towards creating widespread awareness and familiarization of eFiling and eCourts services and to address “skill divide”, a manual on eFiling and a Brochure on “How to register for eFiling” has been made available in English, Hindi and 12 regional languages for the use of the lawyers. A YouTube channel has been created in the name of the e Court services with video tutorials on eFiling. The eCommittee of the Supreme Court of India has conducted trainings and awareness programmes on the ICT services. These programmes have covered nearly 3,60,993 stakeholders, including High Court Judges, Judges of the District Judiciary, Court Staff, Master Trainers among Judges/DSA, Technical Staff of High Courts, and Advocates.
As per data published on Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer (eTaal) portal, eCourts is leading among top 5 MMPs in India with total 371 Cr e-transactions in last one year.
(d): To bridge digital divide,Government has released Rs. 12.54 crore for setting up eSewaKendras. As on 31.12.2021, 451 eSewaKendras have been made functional under 25 High Courts. Rs. 12.12 cr has been allocated for creating 1732 Help Desk counters for e-Filing in Court Complexes; Judicial Service Centres have been established at all computerized courts to serve as a single window for filing petitions and applications by litigants / lawyers and for disseminating judicial information related to cause lists and other case related information to the lawyers and litigants through Info Kiosks. Mobile e-courts van equipped with Wi-Fi and computers for video conferencing for speedy disposal of cases have also been started in Uttarakhandand Telangana.
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