Lok Sabha Question No. 286 (STARRED), answered on 2022-08-05
Subject: Virtual Hearing of Cases in Courts
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Pritam Gopinath Munde, Chandra Sekhar Sahu

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

## LOK SABHA STARRED QUESTION No. *286 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 5 th AUGUST 2022

## Virtual Hearing of Cases in Courts

## *286. DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE: SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

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

- (a) whether the courts in the country have been hearing cases virtually since the COVID-19 pandemic and post pandemic in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of the software being used for virtual hearings in courts in the country;
- (c) the extent to which the software being used is safe and beyond security risk to the country;
- (d)  whether  the  Ministry  proposes  to  involve  the  Ministry  of  Electronics and Information Technology in development of an indigenous software to handle virtual court hearing in the country and if so, the details there of; and
- (e)  whether the Government also proposes to invite private companies to develop Artificial Intelligence systems capable of supporting bulk documentation  and  sophisticated  use  of  graphics  of  courts  and  if  so,  the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE

(SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

(a) to (e): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

## STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PART (a) TO (e) OF LOK SABHA  STARRED  QUESTION  NO.  *286  FOR  05 TH   AUGUST,  2022 REGARDING VIRTUAL HEARING OF CASES IN COURTS

(a): Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown  period  as  physical  hearings  and  normal  court  proceedings  in  the congregational  mode  were  not  possible.  Since  Covid  lockdown  started,  the District courts heard 1,28,76,549 cases while the High Courts heard 63,76,561 cases (totalling 1.92 cr) till 30.04.2022 using video conferencing. The Supreme Court held 2,61,338 hearings till 13.06.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period. To bring about uniformity and standardization in the conduct of VC, an overarching order  was passed by  the  Hon'ble Supreme  Court  of  India  on  6th April  2020  which  gave  legal  sanctity  and  validity  to  the  court  hearings  done through VC. Further, VC rules were framed by a 5-judge committee which was circulated to all the High Courts for adoption after local contextualization. One video  conference  equipment  each  has  been  provided  to  all  Court  Complexes including  taluk  level  courts  and  additionally  funds  have  been  sanctioned  for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins  have  been  made  available.  Additional  1500  VC  Licenses  have  been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails.

(b): The Courts across the country are presently using various video conferencing  platforms  such  as  Vidyo,  Jitsi  Meet,  Google  Meet,  Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx etc. to conduct virtual hearings through video conferencing

(c):  The  Supreme  Court  in  its  decision  in  Justice  K  S  Puttaswamy  (Retd.)  v. Union of India has held that right to privacy is protected as an intrinsic part of right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms governed by Part III of the Constitution. To balance the right of privacy, right to

information and data security, a Sub-Committee consisting of six judges of the High Courts, assisted by technical working group members consisting domain experts,  has  been  constituted  by  the  Chairperson  of  the  e-Committee  to suggest/recommend secure connectivity and authentication mechanisms for data protection  to  preserve  the  right  to  privacy.  The  Sub-Committee  will  critically assess  and  examine  the  digital  infrastructure,  network  and  service  delivery solutions created under  the eCourts project and  propose  solutions for strengthening data security to prevent unauthorized access to data and to protect the privacy of citizens.

(d): As part of 'Atma Nirbhar App Challenge' undertaken by MeitY (Ministry of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology)to  develop  Indian  made  Video Conferencing  software,  it  has  been  informed  that  NIC  is  also  exploring  the option of implementation of Bharat VC for eCourts which is powered by Indian product  of  M/S  Techgentsia  and  it  is  under  trial  for  use  as  uniform  Video Conferencing platform. The test version of the same has been made available for use  on  www.bharatvc.nic.in.  Customisation  is  being  done  for  making  it  user friendly  in  court  environment.  User  feedback  is  being  collected  to  make improvements  in  the software. NIC  is also developing  its  own  product 'NICMeet' which is available on www.nicmeet.nic.in using FOSS software.

(e):  The  eCommittee  of  Supreme  Court of  India, headed by  a  Supreme  Court Judge, is  responsible  for  the  policy  planning,  strategic  direction  and  guidance for implementation of eCourts project. Department of Justice releases funds to High Courts on the recommendation of eCommittee of Supreme Court of India. To explore the use of  AI  in  judicial  domain,  the  Supreme  Court  of  India  has constituted Artificial Intelligence Committee  which  has  mainly  identified application  of  AI  technology  in  Translation  of  judicial  documents;  Legal research assistance and Process automation.

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