Lok Sabha Question No. 2080 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-15
Subject: Legal Reform for Access to Justice
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Krishna Pal Singh Yadav, Mukesh Rajput, Sanjay Seth, Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Ranjanben Dhananjay Bhatt, Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil, Basanta Kumar Panda, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil, Rita Bahuguna Joshi, L.S. Tejasvi Surya

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

*****

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION No- 2080

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 15 th  DECEMBER ,2023

## Legal Reform for Access to Justice

2080. Dr. KRISHNA PAL SINGH YADAV:

SHRI MUKESH RAJPUT:

SHRI SANJAY SETH:

- DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT:

SHRIMATI RANJANBEN DHANANJAY BHATT:

SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

SHRI BASANTA KUMAR PANDA:

- DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:
- DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

PROF.RITA BAHUGUNA JOSHI:

SHRI L.S.TEJASVI SURYA:

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

(a) the key legal reforms and initiatives implemented by the Government during the past nine years to improve access to justice; and

(b) the measures taken to streamline the judicial system, foster legal awareness among citizens and repeal old laws?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

(a) and (b): Yes, Sir. Department of Justice (DoJ), Ministry of Law and Justice has undertaken various initiatives/projects to increase accessibility to legal services and to  enhance  the  legal  literacy  and  empowerment  of  the  needy  people  across  the country.

In  2017,  DoJ  launched  two  key  legal  aid  and  empowerment  programmes  under Access to  Justice  which  included Tele-Law  (mainstreaming  legal  aid  at  grassroots through  technology),  and  Nyaya  Bandhu  promoting  pro  bono  legal  service,  to  be implemented in pilot manner. In 2021, all these programmes were formulated into a comprehensive, pan -India scheme titled 'Designing Innovative Solutions for Holistic Access to Justice in India' (DISHA), launched for a period of five- years (2021-2026). The DISHA scheme aims to provide easy, accessible, affordable and citizen -centric delivery  of  legal  services.  Till  30th  November  2023,  Tele-Law  services  has  been made available across 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats in 782 districts across 36 States and  UTs  and  has  rendered  legal  advice  to  60,23,222  beneficiaries.  The  Nyaya Bandhu  service  enables  seamless  connect  on  the  Nyaya  Bandhu  Application (available  on  Android/  iOS)  between  the  interested  Pro  Bono  Advocates  and registered beneficiaries entitled for free legal aid under section 12 of Legal Services Authorities  Act,1987.  As  on  30th  November,  2023,  there  are  10629  Pro  Bono advocates  and  89  Law  schools  have  constituted  Pro  Bono  Clubs  to  facilitate  the culture of Pro Bono among law students. Moreover approximately 6 lakh beneficiaries  at  the  state  and  district  and  local  level  have  been  made  aware  and sensitized on various rights, duties and entitlements.

The  eCourts  Mission  Mode  Project  is  a  national  eGovernance  project  for  ICT enablement of district/subordinate courts of the country with a view to facilitate faster disposal of cases by speeding up court processes and providing transparent on-line flow of information on case status, orders/judgments etc. to the judiciary as well as litigants, lawyers, and other stakeholders. As part of the National eGovernance Plan, the eCourts Mission Mode project is under implementation 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'.

In  initial  phase,  14,249  Court  sites  were  computerized.  In  Phase  II  of  the  project which started in 2015, 18735 District and Subordinate Courts have been computerized and 99.4% of total Court Complexes across India inter-linked through WAN connectivity and in addition, various citizen centric services have been initiated.

Accessibility  to  case  status  information of  24.47  crore  cases  and more  than  24.13 crore  orders/judgments  is  available  on  the  National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG).  In addition  through  Video  conferencing,  2.92    crore  cases  have  been  heard  by  the District  and  Subordinate  Courts  and  High  courts  and  4.82  lakh  cases  by  the Supreme Court. Live streaming started in 7 High Coutts and Constitutional bench of Supreme Court of India. 25 Virtual Courts have been established in 20 States / UTs to  try  traffic  offences.  To  bridge  the  digital  divide,  875  eSewa  Kendras  have  been made functional under 25 High Courts. The additional features include CIS, NJDG, JustIS  app  for  judges,  eFiling,  epayments,  Judgement  &  Order  Search  portal, NSTEP, Justice Clock etc.

Presently, eCourts Phase-III has been approved with a budgetary outlay of Rs.7,210 crore. This phase aims to create a unified technology platform for the judiciary and provide  a  seamless  and  paperless  interface  between  the  courts,  the  litigants  and other stakeholders. The important features of the eCourts Phase-III includes Digitisation of the court records, both legacy records and pending cases; state of the art  and  latest  Cloud  based  data  repository  for  easy  retrieval;    saturating  all  court complexes across India with e-Sewa Kendras  to provide easy access to citizens not having the necessary know-how or computer equipment; Paperless Courts aiming to bring court  proceedings  under  a  digital  format    leading  to    transparency  and accountability in the Indian Judiciary and speedy  disposal of cases; Video conferencing  facilities  to  be  expanded  to  cover  district  hospitals,  more  courts  and jails,  police  station,  etc.;  Live  Streaming  of  court  proceedings  thereby  allowing  the stakeholder as well as students to see  the live Court proceedings  thereby encouraging transparency in the court system; Online Courts aimed at eliminating the presence of litigants or lawyers in the court, thus saving time and money; Online Dispute  Resolution  to  work  towards  providing  an  alternative  dispute  resolution machinery;  expansion  of  scope  of  Virtual  Courts  beyond  adjudication  of  traffic challans.

The  project  will  help  provide  a  smoother  user  experience  by  building  a  'smart' ecosystem. Registries will have less data entry and minimal file scrutiny facilitating better decision-making and policy planning.  The eCourts Phase-III will thus streamline the judicial system and prove to be a game changer for last mile justice delivery  in  ensuring  ease  of  justice  by  making  the  Court  experience  convenient, inexpensive and hassle free to all the citizens of the country.

The Government of India has taken steps to repeal obsolete and redundant laws to reduce compliance burden on Citizens and to ensure ease of business and ease of living for citizens. In this regard, from 2014 till date,1486 redundant laws have been repealed.  Legislative  action  has  been  taken  to  repeal  76  more  redundant  Acts through the Repealing and Amending Bill,2023.

Moreover, to make people aware of their entitlements as well as their duties under law,  legal  awareness  programmes  are  held  across  the  country  by  Legal  Service Authorities  on  various  laws  and  schemes  relating  to  children,  labourers,  victims  of disaster, SC and ST persons suffering from disability etc. Legal Services Authorities have also prepared booklets and pamphlets in understandable language on various laws  which  are  distributed  amongst  the  people.  National  Legal  Services Authority (NALSA) also organises various campaign from time to time to make people aware about various welfare schemes and entitlements of weaker sections of the society and also the undertrials and convicts. It also organizes legal camps with the threefold  objective  of  spreading  awareness  about  various  welfare  legislations  and schemes, identify target beneficiaries and also to reach out to people individually and address  their  legal  problems.  Year-wise  details  since  2017  onwards  of  the  legal awareness programme organized by NALSA is attached at Annexure-A.

Annexure -A

| Statement as referred to in reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.2080 for answering on 15.12.2023 raised by Dr. Krishna Pal Singh Yadav & Ten Others, (MPs) on details of   | Statement as referred to in reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.2080 for answering on 15.12.2023 raised by Dr. Krishna Pal Singh Yadav & Ten Others, (MPs) on details of   | Statement as referred to in reply to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question No.2080 for answering on 15.12.2023 raised by Dr. Krishna Pal Singh Yadav & Ten Others, (MPs) on details of   |
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Legal Awareness Programmes organized and Persons participated during the period from 2017-18 to 2023-24 (upto Sept.23)                                                          | Legal Awareness Programmes organized and Persons participated during the period from 2017-18 to 2023-24 (upto Sept.23)                                                          | Legal Awareness Programmes organized and Persons participated during the period from 2017-18 to 2023-24 (upto Sept.23)                                                          |
| Years                                                                                                                                                                           | No of programmes Organised                                                                                                                                                      | No. of Persons Attended                                                                                                                                                         |
| 2017-18                                                                                                                                                                         | 1,65,124                                                                                                                                                                        | 2,16,09,724                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2018-19                                                                                                                                                                         | 1,76,916                                                                                                                                                                        | 1,98,56,363                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2019-20                                                                                                                                                                         | 2,27,394                                                                                                                                                                        | 3,16,31,228                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2020-21                                                                                                                                                                         | 1,26,541                                                                                                                                                                        | 1,30,69,637                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2021-22                                                                                                                                                                         | 11,34,086                                                                                                                                                                       | 58,41,26,827                                                                                                                                                                    |
| 2022-23                                                                                                                                                                         | 4,90,055                                                                                                                                                                        | 6,75,17,665                                                                                                                                                                     |
| 2023-24 (upto Sept. 23)                                                                                                                                                         | 1,93,605                                                                                                                                                                        | 1,76,93,492                                                                                                                                                                     |

******