Lok Sabha Question No. 267 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-02-03
Subject: Digitization of Courts
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Vincent H Pala, Jagdambika Pal, Rajendra Agrawal, Rattan Lal Kataria

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 267 TO BEANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 3 RD FEBRUARY, 2023

## Digitization of Courts

## 267. SHRI VINCENT H. PALA:

SHRI JAGDAMBIKA PAL:

SHRI RAJENDRA AGRAWAL:

SHRI RATTAN LAL KATARIA:

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

- a) whether the Government has proposed to develop e-court system for operation of various courts including High Courts and District Courts across the country;
- b) if so, the details of courts including High Courts digitally and District courts that have been digitised and are able to conduct trials online as well;
- c) whether all the courts have been connected with video conferencing to deal with the situation like COVID in which physical presence in the court is not possible and if so, the details thereof;
- d) the details of amount sanctioned for infrastructure development including digital infrastructure of the courts during the last three years and the progress made so far by the implementation of the e-court Mission Project; and
- e) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  bring  any  new  policy  to  provide  cheap, transparent and efficient services to the citizen in district courts?

## ANSWER

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

(a)to (c): The Government has launched the eCourts Integrated Mission Mode Project in the country for computerization of District and subordinate courts with the objective of improving access to justice using technology. As part of the National eGovernance Plan,  the  project  is  under  implementation  since  2007  for  ICT  development  of  the

Indian Judiciary based on the 'National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary'. eCourts project is  being  implemented  in  association  with  e-Committee  Supreme  Court  of  India  and Department  of  Justice.Phase  I  of  the  project  was  implemented  during  2011-2015. Phase  II  of  the  project  started  in  2015  under  which  18,735  District  &  Subordinate courts  have  been  computerised.The  detailed  break-up  of  computerization  of  court complexes has been attached in Annexure-I.

During Phase II of the eCourts project, one video conference equipment each has been provided  to  all  Court  Complexes  including  taluk  level  courts  and  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.

(d): Funds released during the last three years for development of digital infrastructure are mentioned below:

| Year    |   Budget Sanctioned |   Budget Released |
|---------|---------------------|-------------------|
| 2019-20 |              180    |            179.26 |
| 2020-21 |              180    |            179.31 |
| 2021-22 |               98.82 |             98.3  |
| Total   |              458.82 |            456.88 |

Following initiatives have been taken under eCourts project -

- i. Under the Wide Area Network (WAN) Project,connectivity has been provided to 99.4% (2976 out of earmarked 2994) of total Court Complexes across India with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.
- ii. Case Information Software (CIS) is based on 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.

- iii. 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 21.99 crore cases and morethan 20.10 crore orders /  judgments  (as  on  02.01.2023).  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.
- iv. 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  31 st October  2022)  and  JustIS  app  for  judges (18,407 downloads till 31 st December 2022). JustIS mobile app is now available in iOS as well.
- v. 21 Virtual Courts in 17 States/UTs have been operationalized to handle traffic challan cases. More than 2.40 crore cases have been handled by 21 virtual courts and in more than 32 lakhs (32,62,303) cases online fine of more than Rs. 347.86 crore has been realised till 02.01.2023.
- vi. The  Supreme  Court  of  India  emerged  as  a  global  leader  by  conducting 3,79,954 hearings (till 24.12.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period). The High Courts (76,62,243 cases  and  Subordinate  Courts  1,68,47,529 cases)  have conducted  2.45  crore  virtual  hearings  till  24.12.2022.  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.

- vii. 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. A total of 19High Courts have adopted the model rules of e-Filing as on 31.12.2022.
- viii. 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. A total of 20 High Courts have implemented e-payments in their respective jurisdictions. The Court Fees Act has been amended in 22 High Courts till 31.12.2022.
- ix. 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.
- x. 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.
- xi. To make effective use of database created through National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG)  and  to  make  the  information  available  to  public  39  LED  Display Message  Sign  Board  System  called  Justice  Clocks,  have  been  installed  in  25 High Courts.
- xii. 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 11 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 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.

(e): The phase II of the project is nearing its completion and DPR for e-Courts Phase III has been finalized and approved by eCommittee, Supreme Court of India.Phase III of the e-Courts project mentions a judicial system that is more affordable, accessible, costeffective, predictable, reliable, and transparent for every individual who seeks justice or is  part  of  the  delivery  of  justice  in  India.  DPR  of  eCourtsPhase  III    mentions various new features such as Digital and Paperless Courts aimedat bringing court proceedings under a digital format in a court; Online Court  focussing on eliminating the presence of litigants  or  lawyers  in  the  court  ;  expansion  of  scope  of  Virtual  Courts  beyond adjudication  of  Traffic  Violations  ;  use  of  emerging  technologies  like  Artificial Intelligence and its subsets like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) etc for analysis of case pendency, forecasting future litigation, etc.

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## Annexure-I

Statement referred to in reply of Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.267 for 03/02/2023 regardingDigitization of Courts. The details of court complex and computerization of courts under eCourts project Phase-II are as under:

| S.No   | High Court                                                       | State                                                           |   Court Complexes |   Courts |
|--------|------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------|----------|
| 1      | Allahabad                                                        | Uttar Pradesh                                                   |               180 |     2222 |
| 2      | Andhra Pradesh                                                   | Andhra Pradesh                                                  |               218 |      617 |
| 3      | Bombay                                                           | Dadra and Nagar Haveli                                          |                 1 |        3 |
| 3      | Bombay                                                           | Daman and Diu                                                   |                 2 |        2 |
| 3      | Bombay                                                           | Goa                                                             |                17 |       39 |
| 3      | Bombay                                                           | Maharashtra                                                     |               471 |     2157 |
| 4      | Calcutta                                                         | Andaman &Nicobar Islands                                        |                 4 |       14 |
| 4      | Calcutta                                                         | West Bengal                                                     |                89 |      827 |
| 5      | Chhattisgarh                                                     | Chhattisgarh                                                    |                93 |      434 |
| 6      | Delhi                                                            | Delhi                                                           |                 6 |      681 |
| 7      | Gauhati                                                          | Arunachal Pradesh                                               |                14 |       28 |
| 7      | Gauhati                                                          | Assam                                                           |                74 |      408 |
| 7      | Gauhati                                                          | Mizoram                                                         |                 8 |       69 |
| 7      | Gauhati                                                          | Nagaland                                                        |                11 |       37 |
| 8      | Gujarat                                                          | Gujarat                                                         |               376 |     1268 |
| 9      | Himachal Pradesh                                                 | Himachal Pradesh                                                |                50 |      162 |
| 10     | Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh | Union Territory of Jammu &Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh |                86 |      218 |
| 11     | Jharkhand                                                        | Jharkhand                                                       |                28 |      447 |
| 12     | Karnataka                                                        | Karnataka                                                       |               207 |     1031 |
| 13     | Kerala                                                           | Kerala                                                          |               158 |      484 |
| 13     | Kerala                                                           | Lakshadweep                                                     |                 1 |        3 |
| 14     | Madhya Pradesh                                                   | Madhya Pradesh                                                  |               213 |     1363 |
| 15     | Madras                                                           | Puducherry                                                      |                 4 |       24 |
| 15     | Madras                                                           | Tamil Nadu                                                      |               263 |     1124 |
| 16     | Manipur                                                          | Manipur                                                         |                17 |       38 |
| 17     | Meghalaya                                                        | Meghalaya                                                       |                 7 |       42 |
| 18     | Orissa                                                           | Odisha                                                          |               185 |      686 |
| 19     | Patna                                                            | Bihar                                                           |                84 |     1142 |
| 20     | Punjab &Haryana                                                  | Chandigarh                                                      |                 1 |       30 |
| 20     | Punjab &Haryana                                                  | Haryana                                                         |                53 |      500 |
| 20     | Punjab &Haryana                                                  | Punjab                                                          |                64 |      541 |
| 21     | Rajasthan                                                        | Rajasthan                                                       |               247 |     1240 |
| 22     | Sikkim                                                           | Sikkim                                                          |                 8 |       23 |
| 23     | Telangana                                                        | Telangana                                                       |               129 |      476 |
| 24     | Tripura                                                          | Tripura                                                         |                14 |       84 |
| 25     | Uttarakhand                                                      | Uttarakhand                                                     |                69 |      271 |
|        | Total                                                            |                                                                 |              3452 |    18735 |