Lok Sabha Question No. 4890 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-04-01
Subject: Online Dispute Resolution
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Jayant Sinha

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 4890 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 01 st APRIL, 2022

## Online Dispute Resolution

## 4890.   SHRI JAYANT SINHA:

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

- (a) the progress in digitization of court records in all the courts so far;
- (b) the steps taken by the Government to leverage technology in effective dispensation of justice;
- (c) whether  any  schemes  have  been  initiated  for  implementation  of  the Online  Dispute  Resolution  (ODR),  especially  for  low-value  highvolume disputes and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Government has formulated any plan for ODR as per the NITI Aayog Expert Committee Report and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) whether  the  Government  is  planning  to  continue  the  usage  of  digital technology for faster disposal of cases after the pandemic, and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a): The progress of digitization of court records is enclosed atAnnexure .

(b):  Towards enhancement of ICT enablement of Courts, following initiatives have been taken under eCourts project by the eCommittee of the Supreme Court and the Department of Justice:

- i. A  total  of  18,735  District  and  Subordinate  courts  have  been  digitised under the eCourts Project Phase IIso far.
- ii. Under  the  Wide  Area  Network  (WAN)  Project,  2964  courts  sites  have been commissioned with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.
- iii. Case Information Software (CIS) which forms the basis for the e-Court services is based on customized Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS) which has been developed by NIC. Currently CIS National Core Version 3.2 is being implemented in District Courts and the CIS National Core Version 1.0 is being implemented for the High Courts.
- iv. A new software patch and user manual for COVID-19 management has also been developed to help in smart scheduling of cases.
- v. National Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG)  is  a  database  of  orders,  judgments and  cases,  created  as  an  online  platform  under  the  eCourts  Project.  It provides  information  relating  to  judicial  proceedings/decisions  of  all computerized  district  and  subordinate  courts  of  the  country.  Litigants can access case status information in respect of over  19.92 crore cases and  more  than 16.61 crore  orders  / judgments  pertaining to these computerized (as on 02.03.2022). Open APIs have been introduced in 2020 to allow Central and State Governments and institutional litigants including  local  bodies  to  access  NJDG  data  to  improve  pendency monitoring and compliance.
- vi. As part of eCourts project, 7 platforms have been created to provide real time information on case status, cause lists, judgements etc. to lawyers/Litigants  through  SMS  Push  and  Pull  (2,00,000  SMS  sent daily),  Email  (2,50,000  sent  daily),  multilingual  and  tactile  eCourts

services Portal  (35  lakh  hits  daily),  JSC  (Judicial  Service  centres)  and Info Kiosks.  In addition, Electronic Case Management Tools (ECMT) have  been  created  with  Mobile  App  for  lawyers  (total  75.76  lakh downloads till 28th February 2022) and JustIS app for judges (17,013 downloads till 3rd March 2022). JustIS mobile app is now available in iOS as well.

- vii. 17 Virtual Courts in 13 States/UTs have been operationalized to handle traffic challan cases. More than 1.32 crore cases have been handled by 17  virtual  courts  and  in  more  than 22 lakhs  cases  online  fine  of  more than Rs. 229 crore has been realised till 03.03.2022.
- viii. The Supreme Court of India emerged as a global leader by conducting 2,18,891 hearings  (till 14.03.2022  since  the  beginning  of  lockdown period).  The  High  Courts  (61,02,859  cases  and  Subordinate  Courts (1,23,19,917  cases)  have  conducted  1.84  crore  virtual  hearings  till 28.02.2022.  VC  facilities  have  also  been  enabled  between  3240  court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. Funds for 2506 VC cabins and VC equipment for 14,443 courtrooms have also been released. 1500 VC licenses have been procured to promote virtual hearings. A sum of Rs. 7.60  crore  has  been  released  for  procurement  of  1732  Document Visualizers.
- ix. New e-filing system (version 3.0) has been rolled out for the electronic filing  of  legal  papers  with  upgraded  features.    Draft eFiling rules  have been formulated and circulated to the High Courts for adoption.
- x. e-Filing of cases requires the option for electronic payment of fees which includes court fees, fines and penalties which are directly payable to the Consolidated Fund.The Court Fees Act has been amended in 23 High Courts till 28.02.2022.

- xi. Government has released Rs. 12.54 crore for setting up eSewa Kendras. As on 28.02.2022, 493 eSewa Kendra's have been made functional in District Courts under 25 High Courts.
- xii. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) has been launched for technology enabled process serving and issuing of summons. It has currently been implemented in 26 States/ UTs.
- xiii. A new 'Judgment Search' portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name, Judge Name, Act, Section, Decision: From Date, To Date and Full Text Search. This facility is being provided free of cost to all.
- xiv. To make effective use of database created through National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) and to make the information available to public 32 LED Display Message Sign Board System called Justice Clocks, have been installed in 21 High Courts.
- xv. Towards  creating  widespread  awareness  and  familiarization  of  eFiling and eCourts services and to address 'skill divide', a manual on eFiling and  a  Brochure  on  'How  to  register  for  eFiling'  has  been  made available in English, Hindi and 12 regional languages for the use of the lawyers.  A  YouTube  channel  has  been  created  in  the  name  of  the  e Court services with video tutorials  on eFiling.  The  eCommittee  of  the Supreme Court of India has conducted trainings and awareness programmes  on  the  ICT  services.  These  programmes  have  covered nearly  3,60,993  stakeholders,  including  High  Court  Judges,  Judges  of the District Judiciary, Court Staff, Master Trainers among Judges/DSA, Technical Staff of High Courts, and Advocates.
6. (c)  &(d):  The  concept  of  Online  Dispute  Resolution  (ODR)  in  India  is  at  a nascent  stage.  In  order  to  create  an  effective  implementation  framework  for

Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) in India, the NITI Aayog had constituted a high-level committee in June 2020 under the chairmanship of Justice A K Sikri, Retired Judge, Supreme Court of India. The Committee was required to develop an action plan that can aid in mainstreaming ODR and thus promote access to justice through ODR.

The report of the committee titled 'Designing the future of dispute Resolution: the  ODR  Policy  Plan  for  India'  was  released  on  29.11.2021.  The  report recommends  measures  at  three  levels  to  tackle  challenges  in  adopting  ODR framework in India:

- (i) At  the  structural  level,  it  suggests  actions  to  increase  digital  literacy, improve  access  to  digital  infrastructure  and  train  professionals  as neutrals to deliver ODR services.
- (ii) At  the  behavioural  level,  the  report  recommends  adoption  of  ODR  to address disputes involving Government departments and ministries.
- (iii) At the regulatory level, the report recommends a soft-touch approach to  regulate  ODR  platforms  and  services.  This  involves  laying  down design and ethical principles to guide ODR service providers to selfregulate while fostering growth and innovations in the ecosystem.

The report also stresses on strengthening the existing legislative framework for ODR  by  introducing  necessary  amendments  to  statutes.  The  report  offers  a phased implementation framework for ODR in India.

The  Government  of  India  has  already  initiated  the  steps  to  strengthen  ODR mechanisms in the  country.  Acknowledging  the  importance  of  online  dispute resolution,  it  has  been  proposed  to  provide  for  online  mediation  under  the Mediation Bill, 2021 which was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on 20.12.2021. The  online  mediation  is  to  be  conducted  in  accordance  with  the  process specified  by  the  Mediation  Council  of  India.  The  Bill  is  presently  under

examination of  the  Department-related  Parliamentary  Standing  Committee  on Personnel, Public Grievances, Law and Justice.

(e):  With  its  objective  of  universal  computerisation  of  all  the  District  & Subordinate Court complexes, Department of Justice in close coordination with eCommittee of Supreme Court of India is implementing eCourts Mission Mode Project  Phase-II.  The  time  period  for  implementation  of  eCourts  project  was four years (2015-19) or until the project is completed, whichever is later. So far, out of total outlay of Rs. 1670 crore, the Government has released a sum of Rs. 1668.42  crore  as  on  28.03.2022  to  various  organizations  involved  in  the implementation  of  the  project.  A  total  of  18,735  District  and  Sub-ordinate courts have been digitised under the eCourts Project Phase II.As Phase II of the eCourts  project  is  coming  to  an  end,a  draft  Vision  Document  has  been formulated by the eCommittee of the Supreme Court for eCourts Project Phase III.  The  Vision  Document  has  been  prepared  in  consultation  with  domain experts from within the judiciary and private sector experts. This document had been put in the public domain for inviting suggestions and feedback based on which  the  Detailed  Project  Report  is  being  prepared  by  the  eCommittee  of Supreme Court of India.

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## ANNEXURE

Statement  referred  to  in  reply  of  part  (a)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  4890  for 01/04/2022  regarding  Online  Dispute  Resolution.  The  progress  of  digitization  of  court records are as under:

|   Sl. No. | High Court                                 |   Funds Provisioned under 14 th Finance Commission for Scanning &Digitization (In Rs. Cr.) | Funds provided by the State Govt to the High Court (In Rs. Cr.)   | Status of Digitization                            |
|-----------|--------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------|
|         1 | Allahabad High Court                       |                                                                                         87 | 80                                                                | Scanned/ Digitised - 92.15 lakh files             |
|         2 | Andhra Pradesh High Court                  |                                                                                         15 | NIL                                                               | Not Started                                       |
|         3 | Bombay High Court                          |                                                                                         42 | NIL                                                               | Scanned - 63.49 lakh pages                        |
|         4 | Calcutta High Court                        |                                                                                         22 | 5                                                                 | Scanned - 1.22 cr. pages                          |
|         5 | Chhattisgarh High Court                    |                                                                                         31 | NIL                                                               | Started (Figure not provided)                     |
|         6 | Delhi High Court                           |                                                                                          0 | Not Available                                                     | Scanned - 17.65 cr. pages                         |
|         7 | Gauhati High Court (Assam)                 |                                                                                         73 | Not Available                                                     | Started (Figure not provided)                     |
|         8 | Gujarat High Court                         |                                                                                         38 | 47                                                                | Started on pilot basis for 10 lakh pages.         |
|         9 | Himachal Pradesh High Court                |                                                                                         14 | NIL                                                               | 95.42 thousand cases are uploaded to DMS(Dspace). |
|        10 | High Court of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh |                                                                                         25 | 2.82                                                              | Figure not provided                               |
|        11 | Jharkhand High Court                       |                                                                                         28 | NIL                                                               | Scanned - 7.89 lakh case files                    |
|        12 | Karnataka High Court                       |                                                                                         35 | 9.15                                                              | Scanned - 87.63 lakh pages                        |

| 13.   | Kerala High Court             |   16 | NIL    | Started (Figure not provided)   |
|-------|-------------------------------|------|--------|---------------------------------|
| 14.   | Madhya Pradesh High Court     |   59 | 26.73  | Scanned - 26.02 cr.             |
| 15.   | Madras High Court             |   37 | 10.33  | Started (Figure not provided)   |
| 16.   | Manipur High Court            |   10 | 10     | Scanned - 11.14 lakh pages      |
| 17.   | Meghalaya High Court          |   13 | 8.85   | Figure not provided             |
| 18.   | Orissa High Court             |   35 | 8      | Started (Figure not provided)   |
| 19.   | Patna High Court              |   44 | 13     | Scanned - 1.65 cr pages         |
| 20.   | Punjab and Haryana High Court |   49 | 49     | Scanned - 33.51 lakh pages      |
| 21.   | Rajasthan High Court          |   38 | 4.29   | Started (Figure not provided)   |
| 22.   | Sikkim High Court             |    5 | 1.18   | Started (Figure not provided)   |
| 23.   | Telangana High Court          |   12 | 5      | Scanned - 2.68 cr.Pages         |
| 24.   | Tripura High Court            |    9 | NIL    | Not Started                     |
| 25.   | Uttarakhand High Court        |   15 | NIL    | Started (Figure not provided)   |
|       | Total                         |  752 | 276.05 |                                 |

Based on figures provided by eCommittee dated 28.03.2022