Lok Sabha Question No. 1817 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2022-12-16
Subject: Modernisation of District Courts
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Dharmendra Kumar Kashyap

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW & JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1817

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 16 TH  DECEMBER, 2022

## MODERNISATION OF DISTRICT COURTS

## 1817.  SHRI DHARMENDRA KASHYAP:

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

- (a) whether the Government is aware of the poor situation of the litigants including women lawyers,  attending  witnesses  and  public  and  even  the  dismal  standard  of  court  rooms  of judges which requires immediate attention especially in the District Courts of Uttar Pradesh; and
- (b) if so, whether the Government proposes to modernize the District Courts and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

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

(a): While  the  Government  of  India  is  committed  to  the  needs  of  providing  good physical infrastructure  to  the  lower  and  subordinate  judiciary  to  facilitate  better  justice delivery, it is the primary responsibility of the State Government to provide for Judicial Infrastructure in order to supplement the resources of the State Government including the UTs. In district and subordinate courts. The Union Government has been administering a Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for Judiciary. The  scheme  has  been  under  implementation  since  1993-94.  It  covers  construction  of Court Halls, Residential Units, Laywers' Halls, Toilet Complexes and Digital Computer

Rooms. As on date, Rs. 9445.15 crores have been sanctioned since the inception of the Scheme in 1993-94.  Out of this, Rs. 6001.15 crores (63.53%) have been sanctioned to the  States  and  UTs  since  April,  2014.      21,159  court  halls  and  18,557  residential accommodations  have  been  made  available  for  Judicial  Officers  of  the  District  and Subordinate Courts under this scheme as on date against the working strength of 19,235 Judicial  Officers  in  District  and  Subordinate  Courts  in  the  country.    In  addition,  2,673 court halls and 1,662 residential units are under construction in various States.  As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned Rs. 1479.33 crores have been sanctioned since the inception of the Scheme in 1993-94. 2,748 court halls and 2,333 residential units are available and 289 court halls and 251 residential units are under construction.

(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 II so far.
- ii. Under  the  Wide  Area  Network  (WAN)  Project,  2973  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 21.74 crore cases and more than 19.80 crore orders / judgments pertaining  to  these  computerized  (as  on  01.12.2022).  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  1.50  Cr.  downloads  till  31stOctober  2022)  and  JustIS  app  for  judges (17,709 downloads till 31stNovember 2022). JustIS mobile app is now available in iOS as well.
- vii. 21  Virtual  Courts  in  17  States/UTs  have  been  operationalized  to  handle  traffic challan cases. More than 2.30 crore cases have been handled by 21 virtual courts

and  in  more  than 31 lakhs  cases  online  fine  of  more  than  Rs. 337  crore has been realised till 01.12.2022.

- viii. The  Supreme  Court  of  India  emerged  as  a  global  leader  by conducting 2,97,435 hearings (till 03.09.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period). The High Courts (75,80,347 cases and Subordinate Courts (1,65,20,791 cases) have conducted 2.41 crore virtual hearings till 31.10.2022. 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 of India. The Court Fees Act has been amended in 22 High Courts till 31.10.2022.
- xi. Government has released  Rs.  12.54  crore  for  setting  up  eSewaKendras.  As  on 28.02.2022,  619eSewa  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 28 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,  38  LED  Display Message  Sign  Board  System  called  Justice  Clocks,  have  been  installed  in  24 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  eCourt  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 5,13,080 stakeholders, including High Court Judges, Judges of the District  Judiciary,  Court  Staff,  Master  Trainers  among  Judges/DSA,  Technical Staff of High Courts and Advocates.