Lok Sabha Question No. 1875 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-03
Subject: e-Courts Mission Mode Project
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Subhash Ramrao Bhamre, Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Supriya Sadanand Sule, Sunil Dattatray Tatkare, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Amol Ramsing Kolhe

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No.1875 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 3 rd  JULY, 2019

## e-Courts Mission Mode Project

## 1875. DR. SUBHASH  RAMRAO BHAMRE:

DR. HEENA GAVIT:

SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:

SHRI SUNIL DATTATRAY TATKARE:

SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA:

DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE:

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

- (a) whether the Government proposes to implement the e-Courts Mission Mode Project Phase-I and II for communication and information technology enablement of district and subordinate courts across the country in association with the Supreme Court of India and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the allocation of funds released/utilized since the inception of the project;
- (c) whether the Government has set any target for computerization of district and subordinate courts and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has achieved the said target and if so, the details thereof and if not the reasons therefor;
- (e)  whether  the  Government  has  created  the  National  Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for district & subordinate courts;
- (f)    if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  along  with  the  objective  for setting up of such grid; and
- (g)  the other steps taken/being taken by the Government to fully computerize the district and subordinate courts in the country in a time bound manner?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a)  to  (g):    Yes.  The  Government  is  implementing  the  e-Courts  Mission Mode Project for Information and Communication Technology enablement of district and subordinate courts across the country in association with the eCommittee  of  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).
- (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. The target set out under the project is computerization of 16,845 courts, which has been completed. Against the financial outlay of Rs.1670 crores for this Phase, the Government has released a sum  of  Rs. 1248  crore as on date to various organizations  involved  in  the  implementation  of  the  project.   This includes a sum of Rs. 955.86 crore released to all High Courts, out of which as sum of Rs.696.23 crore has been utilized.

- (iii) As  per  information  received  from  eCommittee  of  Supreme  Court  of India,  16845  courts  have  been  computerized.  The  High  Court  wise details of such district and subordinate courts are as Annexure I.
- (iv) National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for District & Subordinate Courts is created  as  an  online  platform  under  the  Project  provides  information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of 16,845 computerized district and subordinate courts of the country. Currently litigants can access case status  information  in  respect  of  over  11.73  crore  cases  and  more  than 9.23  crore  orders  /  judgments  pertaining  to  these  computerized  courts. The portal also provides online information to litigants such as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders, and final judgments. Approximately 3000 Court Complexes replicate live data of filing, registration, scrutiny, objections, case status, cause list, judgment and  orders.   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.

NJDG  works  as  a  monitoring  tool  to  identify,  manage  &  reduce pendency of cases. The NJDG covers all categories of cases. It helps to provide timely inputs for making policy decisions to reduce delay and arrears in the system, facilitate better monitoring of court performance and systemic bottlenecks, and, thus, facilitate better resource management.

World  Bank  praised  the  National  Judicial  Data  Grid  in  the  Ease  of Doing Business Report for 2018, that it made possible to generate case management reports, thereby making it easier to enforce contracts.

High Court NJDG has also been made operational, wherein High Courts have also joined the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) through web services.

- (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 20 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. Out of 2992 court complexes, 2295 have been connected through eCourts WAN as on 28.6.2019.
- (ix) During the Phase II, till date, 228.33 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 by the Government towards full computerization of courts  includes  efforts  of  scanning  and  digitisation  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.

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- ANNEXURE-I
- -------

| Sl. No.     | Name of the High Court    | Number of computerized district and subordinate courts   |
|-------------|---------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|
| 1           | Allahabad                 | 2072                                                     |
| 2           | Andhra Pradesh &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 &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 &Haryana           | 1018                                                     |
| 21          | Rajasthan                 | 1094                                                     |
| 22          | Sikkim                    | 19                                                       |
| 23          | Uttarakhand               | 186                                                      |
| 24          | Tripura                   | 69                                                       |
| Total 16845 | Total 16845               | Total 16845                                              |