Lok Sabha Question No. 2514 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-01
Subject: E-Court Facility
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: CHANDRA PRAKASH JOSHI, RAMDAS CHANDRABHANJI TADAS

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## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE (DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 2514

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 1 ST  AUGUST, 2018

## E-Court Facility

## 2514.   SHRI CHANDRA PRAKASH JOSHI: SHRI RAMDAS C. TADAS:

## Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has proposed for installation of ECourt facility in all the courts of the country ;
- (b)
- if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (c) whether this initiative  will  help  in  transparent  and  speedy trial of cases; if so, the details thereof, and
- (d) whether any proposal for modernization of courts has also been approved for all the District Courts of Delhi/NCR and if so, the details thereof?

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR LAW & JUSTICE

## ANSWER AND CORPORATE AFFAIRS (SHRI P. P. CHAUDHARY)

- (a)  &  (b)  :  Yes,  Madam.  The  Government  of  India  is  implementing  the eCourts  Mission  Mode  Project  (Phase-I  2010-14  and  Phase-II  2015-19) with  a  total  outlay  of  Rs.1,670  crore  (Phase-II)  for  communication  and information  technology  enablement  of  district  and  subordinate  courts across the country  in association with the Supreme Court of  India. The

steps being taken by the Government to promote the use of technology in the working of the Courts are as under :-

- (i)  eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase I was implemented during 2011 2015;  wherein  Rs.  639.41  crores  were  released  for  computerisation  of district and subordinate courts. At the end of Phase-I, out of the total target of  computerisation  of  14,249 district  and  subordinate  courts,  sites  for  all 14,249  courts  (100%)  were  made  ready  for  computerisation,  LAN  was installed at 13,643 courts, hardware provided in 13,436 courts and software was installed in 13,672 courts. Laptops were provided to 14,309 judicial officers  and  change management exercise was completed in all the High Courts. Over 14,000 Judicial Officers were trained in the use of UBUNTULinux Operating System and more than 4,000 court staff have been trained in  Case  Information  System  (CIS)  as  System  Administrators.  Video Conferencing  facility  was  operationalised  between  488  court  complexes and 342 corresponding jails.
- (ii)  Under  the  Phase  II  of  the  Project  (2015-19)  till  date,  Rs.  1,073.18 crores have been released against the financial outlay of Rs.1670 crores. Computerisation  of 16,089  district and subordinate courts has  been completed, through provisioning of computer  hardware,  Local  Area Network  (LAN),  and  installation  of  standard  application  software  in district and subordinate courts.

The details of computerised district and subordinate courts under various High Courts are as under:

|   S. No. | Name of the High Court   | No. of computerised district and subordinate courts   |
|----------|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Allahabad                | 1,733                                                 |
|        2 | Andhra Pradesh           | 1,078                                                 |

| S. No.   | Name of the High Court   | No. of computerised district and subordinate courts   |
|----------|--------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------|
| 3.       | Bombay                   | 2,079                                                 |
| 4.       | Calcutta                 | 772                                                   |
| 5.       | Chattisgarh              | 340                                                   |
| 6.       | Delhi                    | 427                                                   |
| 7.       | Gauhati                  | 442                                                   |
| 8.       | Gujarat                  | 1,108                                                 |
| 9.       | Himachal Pradesh         | 118                                                   |
| 10.      | Jabalpur                 | 1,203                                                 |
| 11.      | Jammu And Kashmir        | 218                                                   |
| 12.      | Jharkhand                | 351                                                   |
| 13.      | Jodhpur                  | 978                                                   |
| 14.      | Karnataka                | 897                                                   |
| 15.      | Kerala                   | 486                                                   |
| 16.      | Madras                   | 988                                                   |
| 17.      | Orissa                   | 509                                                   |
| 18.      | Patna                    | 1,025                                                 |
| 19.      | Punjab And Haryana       | 1,018                                                 |
| 20.      | Sikkim                   | 15                                                    |
| 21.      | Uttarakhand              | 185                                                   |
| 22.      | Tripura                  | 62                                                    |
| 23.      | Manipur                  | 30                                                    |
| 24.      | Meghalaya                | 27                                                    |
|          | Total                    | 1,6089                                                |

(iii)  A  new  and  user-friendly version of Case Information Software (CIS 2.0) has been developed and deployed at all the computerized district and subordinate courts.

(iv)  The  National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG)  for  district  &  subordinate courts  has  been  created  as  an  online  platform  which  now  provides information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of 16,089 computerized  district  and  subordinate  courts  of  the  country.  The  portal provides online information to litigants such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders, and final judgments.  Currently litigants can access case status information in respect of over 10.1 crore cases and more than 6.90 crore orders / judgments.

(v)  e-filing  application  has  been  developed  and  is  integrated  with  Case Information  Software  (CIS  3.0),  which  is  the  unified    common  software across all district and subordinate courts of the country. The pilot testing of e-filing  software  has  been  launched  in  December,  2017  in  district  and subordinate  courts  under  the  jurisdiction  of  Delhi  High  Court.  e-filing module with e-payment of court fees is  ready  for  courts  in  the  states  of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana.

(vi) Judicial Service Centres (JSCs) have been established at all computerized subordinate courts to serve as a single window for filing petitions and applications by litigants/ lawyers, and for obtaining information on ongoing cases and copies of orders and judgments etc.

(vii) ECourts mobile app with the facility of QR Code was launched on 22.07.2017  for  use  of  litigants  and  lawyers.  Services  under  different captions viz. Search by CNR, Case Status, Cause List and My Cases are available on this application, which is available on both Google Play and Apple Store.

(viii)  Furthermore,  the  facility  of  providing  case  information  services through SMS has also been implemented and the process of disseminating system-generated SMSs is operational.

During the Phase II, till date, about 124.98 crore electronic transactions have been recorded for eCourts portal.

(c):  Yes,  Madam.  ICT  enablement  makes  the  functioning  of  courts efficient and transparent, which will have an overall positive impact on the  justice  delivery  system.  ICT  systems  can  be  used  to  efficiently organize and allocate the caseload of a judicial officer and his staff and not  allowing time  consuming cases to be listed  on  same  dates,  thereby allowing  efficient  use  of  court's  time.  NJDG's  analytical  tools  play an important role in helping the judicial management in framing rules and monitoring their strict adherence by the courts. NJDG is thus not merely a tool for supervising and organising information from the courts and to promote transparency, it is also a mechanism to undertake electronic case management and to benefit from court automation. Video Conferencing between  Courts  and  Jails  for  remand  proceedings  saves  judicial  time. eCourts facilities in courts thus helps transparent and speedy trial of cases through  enabling  transparent  and  efficient  court  proceedings,  digitised case records, automation of workflow management, eliminating delays in transmitting the court orders, better resource management, performance management, and monitoring.

(d) : Yes, Madam. All district and subordinate courts across the country, including  those  in  Delhi/NCR  have  been  approved  for  modernization under eCourts project. Under the Phase-II  of the Project (2015-19) till date,  Rs.  20.26  crores  have  been  released  to  Delhi  High  Court  for computerisation of District and Subordinate Courts under the Delhi High

Court towards procurement of computer hardware including peripherals, establishment  of  Local  Area  Network,  technical  infrastructure  such  as touch screen kiosks, racks, switches, projectors etc., video conferencing, solar  energy,  technical  manpower,  computerisation  of  District  Legal Service Authorities (DLSAs), Taluka Legal Service Committees (TLSCs) and State Judicial Academies.