The eCourts Mission Mode Project

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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