In News: The Supreme Court granted interim bail to Arnab Goswami. While doing so, Justice D Y Chandrachud lamented the high pendency in Indian courts and observed that National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) statistics are a valuable resource “to monitor the pendency and disposal of cases
Background
- According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), 40% of the cases are more than five year old. In the Supreme Court, more than 30% of pending cases are more than five years old.
- A 2009 law commission report said it would take 464 years to clear pending cases..
About National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)
- The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a part of the on-going e-Courts Integrated Mission Mode Project.
- It was launched in 2015. The aim is to track judicial performance across different courts in the country.
- The NJDG is working as a National data warehouse for case data including the orders/judgments for Courts across the country.
- NJDG will work as a monitoring tool to identify, manage & reduce pendency of cases.
- The NJDG will cover all categories of cases, including those relating to the juvenile justice system.
- It also helps to provide timely inputs for making policy decisions to reduce delay and arrears in the system, facilitate better monitoring of court performance and systemic bottlenecks, and, thus, facilitate better resource management.
- NJDG has specifically helped India improve its ranking in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Report.
E-court Integrated Mission Mode Project
- The E-Courts Project was conceptualised on the basis of “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary – 2005” submitted by e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India (set up in 2004).
- Main objectives of the e-Court Project
- To provide efficient & time-bound citizen centric service delivery.
- To develop, install & implement decision support systems in courts.
- To automate the processes to provide transparency of Information access to its stakeholders.
- To enhance judicial productivity both qualitatively & quantitatively, to make the justice delivery system affordable, accessible, cost effective & transparent.
Source: PIB and RSTV
