Lok Sabha Question No. 313 (STARRED), answered on 2019-01-02
Subject: e-Court IMMP
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: DUSHYANT CHAUTALA, BHEEMRAO BASWANTHRAO PATIL

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

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No.*313 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 2 nd  JANUARY, 2019

## e-Court IMMP

## *313.    SHRI DUSHYANT CHAUTALA: SHRI BHEEMRAO B. PATIL:

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

- (a) whether e-Courts Integrated Mission Mode Project (e-Courts IMMP) has been implemented with the aim of computerization of the District and Subordinate courts across the country;
- (b)    if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  total  number  of  District  and Subordinate  courts  computerized  by  the  said  mission  Statewise;
- (c) the financial allocation made by Government for this purpose since inception of this project and the manner in which this initiative would help in transparent and speedy trial of cases;
- (d) whether the Government has proposed installation of e-Court facility  for  all  the  courts  of  the  country,  and  if  so,  details thereof; and
- (e)  the  details  of  other  steps  being  taken  for  modernisation  of courts across the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (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.*313 FOR 2 nd  JANUARY, 2019 REGARDING e-Court IMMP

(a)  to  (e):    Yes.  The  Government  is  implementing  the  e-Courts  Mission Mode Project  with  the  aim  of  computerisation  of  district  and  subordinate courts  across  the  country,  in  association  with  the  eCommittee,  Hon'ble Supreme  Court  of  India.  The  steps  being  taken  by  the  Government  to promote  the  use  of  technology  in  the  working  of  the  courts  through computerisation of district and subordinate courts are as under:

- (i) The  eCourts  Mission  Mode  Project  Phase-I  was  implemented during 2011 - 2015. 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,  out  of  which  LAN  was  installed  at  13,643 courts,  hardware  was  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 UBUNTU-Linux Operating System and  more  than  4,000  court  staff  have  been  trained  as  System Administrators in Case Information System (CIS). Video Conferencing  facility  was  operationalised  between  488  court complexes and 342 corresponding jails.
- (ii) The eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase-II is being implemented for a  period  of  four  years  (2015-19)  or  until  the  project  is  completed, whichever is later. Against the financial outlay of Rs.1670 crores in the  second  phase,  Rs.1085  crores  have  been  released  including Rs.931.31  crores  have  been  released  to  High  Courts  and  Rs.616.45 crore have been utilised by the High Courts. The  target set out under the project are 14249 courts covered under the first phase, 4013 new courts and 1738 expected courts, totalling  20,000 courts.
- (iii) As  per  information  received  from  eCommittee  of  Supreme Court of India, 16845 courts have been computerized till date. The  High  Court  wise  details  of  such  district  and  subordinate courts are as Annexure  I.
- (iv) 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 10.81 crore cases and more than 7.87 crore orders / judgements pertaining to the computerized district  and  subordinate  courts.    Litigant  centric  information can be obtained through the website of the eCourts portal by accessing using the URL: https://ecourts.gov.in. Case information  is  thus  available  speedily  to  the  petitioners  and respondents.
- (v) 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.  The  number  of  downloads  have  crossed  12 lakhs.
- (vi) Furthermore,  the  facility  of  providing  case  information  services through SMS  has  also been implemented and the process of disseminating system-generated SMSs is operational. The case details can also be obtained by sending unique CNR number (Case Number Record) to a mobile number through SMS. Cause lists, judgements, case status etc. can be received in the litigants' mailbox on registration of email address. Information Kiosks have been setup at all computerized court complexes for disseminating judicial information related to cause lists and other case related information to the lawyers and litigants.
- (vii) The  eFiling  application  was  launched  on  14 th August,  2018  and  is made  available  at  efiling.ecourts.gov.in  where  online  registration  of lawyers  and  litigants  can  be  done.  e-filing  application  has  been developed  and  is  integrated  with  Case  Information  Software  (CIS 3.0), which is the standard application software across all district and subordinate courts of the country. Integration with CIS 1.0 software of High Courts is also complete.e-filing module with e-payment of court fees  is  ready  for  courts  in  the  states  of  Telangana,  Andhra  Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Haryana. In other states, except for epayment, the efiling module is ready for launch in all the courts that have shifted to CIS 1.0 and CIS 3.0.
- (viii) One of the important eCourts project components is establishment of Wide Area Network (WAN) connecting all  District and Subordinate court  complexes,  spread  across  the  country.  The  eCommittee  of Supreme  Court  of  India gave  approval to  award  the  eCourts'  WAN project to BSNL. Work order to the tune of Rs. 169 crores has been awarded  to  BSNL  for  establishing Wide  Area  Network  (WAN) connecting 2992 district and subordinate court complexes across the country, including 547 court complexes with no connectivity. National Informatics Centre has operationalised an online monitoring tool  for  tracking  real-time  progress  and  monitoring  of  pan  -  Indian

WAN project against the set baselines.   Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has  already  been  laid  at  2066  court  complexes  so  far,  out  of  2992 project locations.

- (ix) During the Phase II, till date, 166.09 crore electronic transactions have been recorded for eCourts through eTaal portal. The eCourts transactions  have  thus  emerged  as  one  of  the  topmost  accessed services of the Government of India.
- (x) 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.
- (xi) Other steps  taken  for  modernisation  of  courts  includes  efforts towards  scanning  and  disgitisation  of  court  records.  Central Government  has  accepted  the  recommendation  of  the  14th Finance Commission which included scanning and digitisation of  court  records  of  all  High  Courts,  district  and  subordinate courts.  The  14th  Finance  Commission  has  urged  the  state governments to use the additional fiscal space provided by the 14th  Finance  Commission  in  the  tax  devolution  from  32%  to 42% to meet such requirements. Digitisation of case records of High  Courts  across  the  country  has  been  initiated  and  is  at varying levels of implementation in different High Courts in the country.

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|   S. No. | Name of the High Court       |   Number of computerised district and subordinate courts |
|----------|------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
|        1 | Allahabad                    |                                                     2072 |
|        2 | Andhra Pradesh and Telangana |                                                     1078 |
|        3 | Bombay                       |                                                     2079 |
|        4 | Calcutta                     |                                                      811 |
|        5 | Chattisgarh                  |                                                      357 |
|        6 | Delhi                        |                                                      427 |
|        7 | Gauhati                      |                                                      496 |
|        8 | Gujarat                      |                                                     1108 |
|        9 | Himachal Pradesh             |                                                      119 |
|       10 | Jammu and Kashmir            |                                                      218 |
|       11 | Jharkhand                    |                                                      351 |
|       12 | Karnataka                    |                                                      897 |
|       13 | Kerala                       |                                                      486 |
|       14 | Madras                       |                                                     1032 |
|       15 | Madhya Pradesh               |                                                     1293 |
|       16 | Manipur                      |                                                       37 |
|       17 | Meghalaya                    |                                                       39 |
|       18 | Orissa                       |                                                      534 |
|       19 | Patna                        |                                                     1025 |
|       20 | Punjab and Haryana           |                                                     1018 |
|       21 | Rajasthan                    |                                                     1094 |

| 22.   | Sikkim      |    19 |
|-------|-------------|-------|
| 23.   | Uttarakhand |   186 |
| 24.   | Tripura     |    69 |
|       | Total       | 16845 |