Lok Sabha Question No. 4675 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-24
Subject: e-Court Project
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Midhun Reddy, Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE

## (DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 4675

## TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 24 th March, 2021

## e-Court Project

## 4675.   SHRI P.V. MIDHUN REDDY: SHRI MAGUNTA SREENIVASULU REDDY:

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

- (a) whether the Government has completed the Phase 1 of the E-Courts project and has approved the Phase 2 project; and
- (b) if so, the detailed thereof ?

## ANSWER

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

(a)  &  (b):    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 eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase-I was implemented during 2011- 2015 with a total expenditure of Rs. 639.41 crore.

The  eCourts  Mission  Mode  Project  Phase-II  has  commenced  since 2015 for a period of four years (2015-19) or until the project is completed, whichever is later. So far 18,735 District and Subordinate Courts have been

computerized. Out of 2992 court complexes Wide Area Network connectivity  has  been  provided  to  2940  court  complexes.  Against  the financial outlay of Rs.1670 crores for eCourts Phase-II, the Government has so far released a sum of Rs. 1548.13 crore for implementation of the eCourt project.  Some of the other salient achievements under eCourts Project Phase II  include  the  introduction  of  Case  Information  Software  using  Free  and Open Source Software to automate the entire process of Court registry. This has led to the 'National Judicial Data Grid' (NJDG), which provides status of 18.28 crore pending/disposed cases and 13.88 crore orders/judgments of Subordinate  Courts  and  High  Courts  (as  on  3 rd March  2021).  Open Application Programming Interface (APIs) has been recently introduced to allow  Central  and  State  Governments  and  institutional  litigants  to  access NJDG data for pendency monitoring.  Seven platforms have been created for disseminating  real  time  information  on  case  status,  cause  list,  judgements etc. to lawyers and litigants viz. a multilingual and disabled-friendly eCourts Portal, eCourts Mobile App and JustIS App for judges, Automated emails, SMS  Push  and  Pull  Service,  Judicial  Service  Centers  and  Information Kiosks.

The Supreme Court of India emerged as a global leader with more than 59,309  virtual  hearings  (as  on  15th  February  2021).  The  High  Courts (27,58,560  hearings)  and  Subordinate  Courts  (54,46,876  hearings)  have conducted  more  than  82.05  lakh  virtual  hearings  till  28 th February  2021. Funds for 2506 VC cabins and VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms have also been released.  In a first of its kind, 11 Virtual courts have been set up in 9 States which  tried 55.44 lakh traffic offences including online realization of Rs. 150 crore as fines.  Expanding the scope of Virtual Courts, Delhi High Court has recently started 34 Digital Courts to deal exclusively with  cheque  bounce  cases  under  Section  138  NI  Act.  eFiling  system  has

been  rolled  out  for  the  electronic  filing  of  legal  papers.  For  making  the payment process easy and transparent, online payment of court fees, fines, penalties and judicial deposits has been enabled. Electronic processing and serving  of  summons  has  been  introduced  through  National  Service  and Tracking  of  Electronic  Processes  (NSTEP).  To  mitigate  the  handicaps caused by digital divide, 235 e-SewaKendras or e-Resource Centre have also been funded.

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