Lok Sabha Question No. 3591 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-03-21
Subject: Strengthening e-Court System
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Shri Adhikari Soumendu

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 3591 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 21 st MARCH, 2025

## Strengthening e-Court System

## 3591. Shri Adhikari Soumendu:

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

- (a) whether the Government is strengthening the e-Court system, including digital case management and online services, if so, the details thereof;
- (b)the details of implementation status of Centrally Sponsored Scheme for judicial infrastructure and its fund-sharing pattern with States; and
- (c) whether the Government is taking initiatives to augment software for case management, use of AI, public legal education and citizen feedback mechanism, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

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

## (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

(a) to (c): With an outlay of Rs.7210 Cr for the eCourts Project, Phase III, the Government's resolve to strengthen the eCourts system across the country is very much evident. Under this initiative, several steps have been taken to improve the court management processes and digitise the services for the various stakeholders, such as, lawyers, litigants, judges and others.

Under the digital case management system, eFiling system (version 3.0) has been rolled out with upgraded features for lawyers to access and upload documents related to the cases from any location 24X7. ePayment system has been launched for hassle free transfer of fee, etc. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) has been launched for technology enabled

process serving and issuing of summons. Besides, a Judgment Search portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name, etc. This facility is being provided free of cost to all. To facilitate easy and hassle-free access to citizen-centric services, 1610 eSewa Kendras (Facilitation Centres) have been established across India. 28 Virtual Courts are functioning across 21 States/UTs for trying traffic related offences. Apart from this, as part of eCourts services, 7 platforms have been created to provide information on case status, cause lists, judgements etc. to lawyers/ litigants through SMS Push and Pull, Email, multilingual eCourts services Portal, JSC (Judicial Service centres), Info Kiosks, eCourts Mobile App for lawyers/litigants (2.87 crore downloads till date) and JustIS App for judges (21,105 downloads till date). To bring in greater objectivity, consistency, transparency and speed, Case Information System (CIS) version 4.0 software has been implemented across the district and taluka courts across the country.As per the information provided by the Supreme Court of India, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML) based tools are being deployed in case management. They are being used in transcribing of oral arguments in Constitution Bench matters. The AI assisted transcribed arguments can be accessed from the website of the Supreme Court.Supreme Court of India is also testing prototypes of AI and machine learning (ML) tools, for curing defects, data, meta data extraction in collaboration with IIT, Madras. This AI and ML based tool will be integrated with the electronic filing module and the case management software, namely, Integrated Case Management & Information System (ICMIS).

The Central Government has been supplementing the resources of the State/UT Governments, through the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for the Development of Judicial Infrastructure of the District and Subordinate Judiciary, wherein financial assistance is provided in the prescribed fund sharing ratio to the States/UTs for the development of five components namely, court halls and residential units for judicial officers, lawyer's halls, toilet complexes and digital

computer rooms for the convenience of lawyers and litigants. Since the inception of the scheme, in the year 1993-94 till date, a sum of Rs.11,885.29 Cr has been released. As on 28.02.2025, 22,062 court halls and 19,775 residential units are available in the district and subordinate courts. Another, 3,206 Court Halls and 2,639 residential units are currently under construction.

In accordance with the guidelines of the Department of Expenditure, the fund sharing under the CSS is applicable in the ratio of 60:40 between Centre and the States, except North Eastern States and the two Himalayan States of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, where the ratio of 90:10 applies. For Union Territories 100% Central Assistance is made available without the fund sharing requirement.

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