Lok Sabha Question No. 154 (STARRED), answered on 2017-07-26
Subject: e-Court System
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: (SMT.) RATNA DE(NAG), SHARAD TRIPATHI

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

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. *154

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 26 TH  JULY, 2017

eCourt System

## *154.    DR. RATNA DE (NAG)

## SHRI SHARAD TRIPATHI

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

- (a)  whether  the  Government    proposes/has  a  proposal  to start  a  compulsory  e-Court system  in  all  the  districts  of the country in the near future;
- (b)  if so, the details thereof;
- (c) whether this initiative will help in speedy and transparent trial/disposal of the pending cases in various courts of the country;
- (d)  if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the time by which the Government is likely to implement the  said system?

## ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## ANSWER MINISTER OF LAW & JUSTICE AND (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

- (a)
- to (e): A Statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 154 FOR 26 TH  JULY, 2017

## REGARDING eCOURT SYSTEM

(a)  &  (b):    The  Government  of  India  has  an  eCourt  project  as  a  Mission Mode Project for computerization of all the district and subordinate courts. Key features of the Project include delivery of the services; inter alia , case registration, cause lists, daily case status, and final order/judgment. Further, e-filing of cases, e-payment of court fees, process service through email and also through process servers having hand held devices, receipt of digitally signed copies of judgments are key services.

All the district  and  subordinate  courts  computerized under eCourts project have been linked to National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), which is a common repository of case records across the country . The portal also provides online information to citizens including 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  7  crore  pending  and decided cases and more than 4 crore orders / judgements pertaining to the computerized  district  and  subordinate  courts.  As  per  information  received from eCommittee of Supreme Court of India, funds have been released to 16089 courts till date for computerization. The High Court wise details of such district and subordinate courts are as under:

|   S. No. | Name of the High Court   |   No. of computerised courts |
|----------|--------------------------|------------------------------|
|        1 | Allahabad                |                         1733 |
|        2 | Andhra Pradesh           |                         1078 |
|        3 | Bombay                   |                         2079 |
|        4 | Calcutta                 |                          772 |
|        5 | Chattisgarh              |                          340 |
|        6 | Delhi                    |                          427 |
|        7 | Gauhati                  |                          442 |
|        8 | Gujarat                  |                         1108 |
|        9 | Himachal Pradesh         |                          118 |

| S. No.   | Name of the High Court   |   No. of computerised courts |
|----------|--------------------------|------------------------------|
| 10.      | Jabalpur                 |                         1203 |
| 11.      | Jammu And Kashmir        |                          218 |
| 12.      | Jharkhand m              |                          351 |
| 13.      | Jodhpur                  |                          978 |
| 14.      | Karnataka                |                          897 |
| 15.      | Kerala                   |                          486 |
| 16.      | Madras                   |                          988 |
| 17.      | Orissa                   |                          509 |
| 18.      | Patna                    |                         1025 |
| 19.      | Punjab And Haryana       |                         1018 |
| 20.      | Sikkim                   |                           15 |
| 21.      | Uttarakhand              |                          185 |
| 22.      | Tripura                  |                           62 |
| 23.      | Manipur                  |                           30 |
| 24.      | Meghalaya                |                           27 |
|          | Total                    |                        16089 |

(c) to (e): The eCourts Project equips the Judiciary to use ICT enabled tools to improve court and case management. The availability of online database enables judiciary to plan court administration. It leads to making the justice delivery  system  across  the  country  more  transparent,  more  accessible  and affordable.  Availability  of  case  data  online  imparts  transparency  to  the functioning of courts and facilitates easy access of such data to lawyers and litigants.  Thus,  ICT  enablement  of  courts  increases  efficiency  of  justice delivery system through organised and easy access to case information, and transparency is the eventual outcome. The eCourts Mission Mode Project is scheduled to culminate in 2019.