In news
More than two thousand Court complexes across the country have been connected by a high-speed Wide Area Network (WAN)under e-Courts Project
Timeline of eCourt 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 Hon’ble Supreme Court of India
- The e-Courts National portal (ecourts.gov.in) was launched by Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India on 7th August 2013. This provides Case Status, daily Cause-list, Cases Filed and Cases Registered through the Case information System (CIS) Software.
- The e-Courts National portal also provides training material for judicial officers and staff, links to District Court websites and statistical reports that can be used as a judicial management information system.
- The eCourts Mission Mode Project, is a Pan-India Project, monitored and funded by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India for the District Courts across the country.
The main objectives of the e-Court Project are as follows:
- 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
Phases of e-Court projects
Phase-I
- In Phase-I of the eCourts Project beginning from 2007, a large number of Court Complexes, Computer Server Rooms and Judicial Service Centres were readied for computerization of the District Courts.
- The District and Taluka Court Complexes covered in Phase-I were computerized with installation of hardware, LAN and Case Information Software (CIS), for providing basic case related services to the litigants and the lawyers.
- Under this, 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 Case Information System (CIS) was successfully implemented.
- Phase-I concluded with extended timelines upto 30th March 2015.
Phase-II
- The Policy and Action Plan Document Phase-II of the ecourts Project, 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.
- In Phase-II, the covered courts are provisioned for additional hardware with (1+3) systems per Court Room, the uncovered Courts of Phase-I and the newly established Courts with (2+6) systems per Court Room and the Court Complexes are provisioned for hardware, LAN etc.
- It provides for High Courts as Implementing Agency, of the project under its jurisdiction
- Provision has been made for computerization of office of District Legal Services Authority; Taluka Legal Services Committee, the National Judicial Academy and the State Judicial Academies for efficient delivery of services and training.
- Phase-II has adopted the Core-Periphery model of Case Information Software, the core being Unified as National Core, while the periphery developed according to requirement of each High Court
- In Phase-II, all the remaining Court Complexes are provisioned to be connected with Jails and Desktop based Video Conferencing to go beyond routine remands and production of under-trial prisoners. It will also be used for recording evidence in sensitive cases and gradually extended to cover as many types of cases as possible
- The Phase-II provides for Judicial Knowledge Management System including Integrated Library Management System and use of Digital Libraries.
- The Phase-II of the project lays great emphasis on service delivery to the litigants, lawyers and other stakeholders.
- The websites will be Accessible Compliant and to the extent possible, the information will be available in the local languages.
- The applications for mobile phones , SMS and emails are extensively used as platforms for dissemination of information