Lok Sabha Question No. 381 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-03
Subject: Virtual Court
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Manish Tewari

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 381 TO BE ANSWERED ON WEDNESDAY, THE 3 rd  FEBRUARY, 2021

## Virtual Court

## 381. SHRI MANISH TEWARI:

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

- (a) whether District and Subordinate Courts lack basic infrastructure and  are  experiencing  difficulties  in  adapting  to  Virtual  Court system and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the number of lower and subordinate courts  with  WAN connectivity and video conferencing facilities;
- (c) whether Courts are moving towards virtual courts  and  is  there need  for  electronic  indigenous  software  system  for  secured transmission;
- (d) if so, whether the Courts or the Counsel appearing for the parties have any option for accessing these systems;
- (e) if  not,  whether  the  Government  has  any  plans  to  develop indigenous software systems to ensure secured transmission of the Virtual court proceedings?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE, COMMUNICATIONS AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a)  &  (b)  :  One  video  conference  equipment  each  has  been  provided  to  all Court Complexes including Taluk Level Court Complexes in rural areas under the Phase II of the e-Courts Project for virtual hearings.  To further augment the Video Conferencing (VC) infrastructure, the eCommittee of the Supreme

Court has approved VC equipment to be provided to 14,443 court rooms in these court complexes for which funds to the tune of Rs.28.88 crore has been released  (  Details  at  Annexure-I).    A  sum  of  Rs.  5.012  crore  has  also  been released  for  setting  up  of  2506  VC  Cabin  in  the  Court  Complexes  besides releasing a sum of Rs. Rs. 7.60 crore to install  Document Visualisers.  The District and Subordinate Courts have heard 45.73 lakh cases over VC between 24.03.2020  to  31.12.2020.  The  Wide  Area  Network  (WAN)  Project  under eCourts  project  is  aimed  at  connecting  all  District  and  Subordinate  court complexes, spread across the country using various technologies like Optical Fibre  Cable  (OFC),  Radio  Frequency  (RF),  Very  Small  Aperture  Terminal (VSAT) etc.  So  far,  2933  sites  have  been  connected  out  of  total  2992  sites with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.

(c) to (e): Under eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase-II  computerization of 18,735 District & Subordinate Courts has been completed.  To provide end to end  digital  solution,  Case  Information  System  using  free  and  open  source software automates the entire process of court registry.  Several services have been provided  to litigants,  lawyers  and other stakeholders such  as details of case registration, cause list, case status, daily orders & final judgments through eCourts  web  portal,  Judicial  Service  Centres  (JSCs)  ,eCourts  Mobile  App, email  service,  SMS  push  &  SMS  pull  services  and  touch  screen  based Information Kiosks. The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) for District & Subordinate  Courts  has  been  created  as  an  online  platform  which  provides information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of all  High Courts and District /subordinate courts of the country. Currently, all stakeholders including Judicial Officers and lawyers can access case status information in respect of over 17.90 crore pending and disposed cases and more than 13.36 crore  orders  /  judgments  pertaining  to  these  computerized  courts.  Video Conferencing facility has been enabled between 3240 court complexes & 1272 corresponding jails.

A  centralized  and  upgraded  cloud  based  Video-Conferencing  infrastructure with  latest  features  including  robust  data  security  and  facility  to  support  a larger number of concurrent users has been approved by the eCommittee of the Supreme Court of India, which can be usable for district and subordinate courts  also.      Under  the  'AtmaNirbhar  Bharat'  initiative  of  Govt.  of  India, Ministry of Electronic and Information Technology  has  evaluated and shortlisted  indigenously  developed  VC  solution  which  is  currently  under testing.

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## Fund release for VC equipment for Court Rooms

| S.No   | High Court       | Number of Functioning Court Rooms   | Number of VC equipment were already provided   | Number of additional equipment to be provided   | Total Estimated Cost (In Rs. Lakh)   |
|--------|------------------|-------------------------------------|------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| A      | B                | C                                   | D                                              | E                                               | F=Ex20000                            |
| 1      | Allahabad        | 2438                                | 150                                            | 2288                                            | 457.6                                |
| 2      | Andhra Pradesh   | 550                                 | 212                                            | 338                                             | 67.6                                 |
| 3      | Bombay           | 2178                                | 486                                            | 1692                                            | 338.4                                |
| 4      | Calcutta         | 840                                 | 88                                             | 752                                             | 150.4                                |
| 5      | Chhattisgarh     | 395                                 | 90                                             | 305                                             | 61                                   |
| 6      | Delhi            | 479                                 | 6                                              | 473                                             | 94.6                                 |
| 7      | Gauhati          | 442                                 | 194                                            | 248                                             | 49.6                                 |
| 8      | Gujarat          | 1078                                | 327                                            | 751                                             | 150.2                                |
| 9      | Himachal Pradesh | 135                                 | 43                                             | 92                                              | 18.4                                 |
| 10     | Jammu &Kashmir   | 218                                 | 86                                             | 132                                             | 26.4                                 |
| 11     | Jharkhand        | 417                                 | 28                                             | 389                                             | 77.8                                 |
| 12     | Karnataka        | 1029                                | 200                                            | 829                                             | 165.8                                |
| 13     | Kerala           | 508                                 | 159                                            | 349                                             | 69.8                                 |
| 14     | Madhya Pradesh   | 1274                                | 203                                            | 1071                                            | 214.2                                |
| 15     | Madras           | 1169                                | 267                                            | 902                                             | 180.4                                |
| 16     | Manipur          | 38                                  | 37                                             | 1                                               | 0.2                                  |
| 17     | Meghalaya        | 36                                  | 64                                             | 0                                               | 0                                    |
| 18     | Orissa           | 688                                 | 141                                            | 547                                             | 109.4                                |
| 19     | Patna            | 1046                                | 76                                             | 970                                             | 194                                  |
| 20     | Punjab &Haryana  | 972                                 | 118                                            | 854                                             | 170.8                                |
| 21     | Rajasthan        | 1239                                | 238                                            | 1001                                            | 200.2                                |
| 22     | Sikkim           | 21                                  | 17                                             | 4                                               | 0.8                                  |
| 23     | Telangana        | 440                                 | 129                                            | 311                                             | 62.2                                 |
| 24     | Tripura          | 78                                  | 66                                             | 12                                              | 2.4                                  |
| 25     | Uttarakhand      | 184                                 | 52                                             | 132                                             | 26.4                                 |
|        | Total            | 17892                               | 3477                                           | 14443                                           | 2888.6                               |

## ANNEXURE-I