Lok Sabha Question No. 796 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-11-29
Subject: Proposal for Integrated Judicial Complex
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Shri Anil Firojiya

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

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. †796

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 29 TH  NOVEMBER, 2024

## Proposal for Integrated Judicial Complex

## †796. SHRI ANIL FIROJIYA:

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

- (a) the steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government to increase the number of courts and to improve their efficiency;
- (b)  whether  the  Government  proposes  to  build  an  Integrated  Judicial  Complex  for convenient and speedy justice;
- (c) if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) if not, the reasons therefor?

## 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 (d): The establishment of new courts, increasing the number of courts, and setting up  of  Integrated  Judicial  Complexes  in  the  country  lies  within  the  domain  of  the  State Governments, who setup such courts, as per their requirement and resources, in consultation with  the  respective  High  Courts,  having  territorial  jurisdiction.  However,  the  Central Government is fully committed to improve the efficiency of the courts and has taken several initiatives  for  the  same.  Some  of  the  initiatives  taken  by  Department  of  Justice  to  aid  the cause of justice delivery are as under:-

- i. Under the Centrally Sponsored  Scheme for  development of Judicial Infrastructure, the  Government  of  India  supplements  the  resources  of  the  States/UTs,  by  way  of release  of  funds  for  construction  of  court  halls,  residential  quarters  for  judicial officers, lawyers' halls, toilet complexes and digital computer rooms. This is for the convenience  of  various  stakeholders  including  the  litigants,  thereby  aiding  justice delivery. As on date, Rs. 11,583 crores have been released since the inception of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for the Judiciary in 1993-94. As a consequence, the number of court halls have increased from 15,818 as on 30.06.2014 to 23,590, as on date. The number of residential units for  judicial  officers  have  increased  from  10,211  as  on  30.06.2014  to 21,076,  as  on date, under this scheme.
- ii. As  part  of  the  National  eGovernance  Plan,  the  eCourts  project  is  an  integrated Mission  Mode  Project  for  Information  and  Communication  Technology  (ICT) enablement of the Indian Judiciary based on the 'National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation  of  Information  and  Communication  Technology  in  the  Indian Judiciary'. It was launched with the objective of improving access to justice, using technology. 18735 District and Subordinate Courts have been computerized till 2023 under this scheme. As part of the Wide Area Network (WAN) project, connectivity has  been  provided  to  99.5%  of  total  Court  Complexes  across  India.  Various initiatives of eCourts project include Video conferencing facility, Live Streaming of court proceedings in 9 High Courts and Supreme Court of India, Virtual Courts for adjudicating traffic challans, Citizen centric services through 7 platforms, JustIS app for  judges,  eFiling,  ePayments, eSewa Kendras, Judgement & Order Search portal, National  Service  and  Tracking  of  Electronic  Processes  (NSTEP)  and  the  Justice Clock.

The  Government  has  demonstrated  its  commitment  in  modernizing  the judiciary  with  advanced  digital  infrastructure  by  significantly  increasing  budget allocations since 2015. For Phase II, an amount of ₹1670 crore, a notable rise from the ₹639 crore disbursed during Phase I was allotted. Furthermore, Phase III (20232027) has been approved by the Union Cabinet in Sep'2023 at an outlay of ₹7,210 crore, which is over four times the funding for Phase II.

The efforts of the Government of integrating technology with the governance is envisaged to be a game changer in eCourts Phase III, as it envisages various new digital initiatives, such as, establishment of Digital and Paperless Courts that aim to bring court proceedings under a digital format and digitization of court records (both legacy  records  and  pending  cases).  As  a  result,  over  391.15  crore  pages  of  court records  have  been  digitized  in  the  High  Courts  and  District  Courts  as  of  Sep'24. Besides, the expansion of video conferencing facilities to courts, jails and hospitals, increasing  the  scope  of  online  courts  beyond  adjudication  of  traffic  violations, saturation of all court complexes with eSewa kendras, state of the art and latest Cloud based  data  repository  for  easy  retrieval  and  supporting  the  digitised  court  records, software applications, live streaming, and electronic evidence etc., 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., are other initiatives towards efficient court management.

- iii. The Government has also been regularly filling up the vacancies in higher judiciary. From  01.05.2014  to  21.11.2024,  64  Judges  were  appointed  in  Supreme  Court. 999 new Judges were appointed and 767 Additional Judges were made permanent in

the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of High Courts has been increased from 906 in May, 2014 to 1122 till date.

The  sanctioned  and  working  strength  of  judicial  officers  in  district  and subordinate courts have also increased as under:

| As on*     | Sanctioned Strength   | Working Strength   |
|------------|-----------------------|--------------------|
| 31.12.2013 | 19,518                | 15,115             |
| 31.10.2024 | 25,725                | 20,487             |

- iv. Under the aegis of the Fourteenth Finance Commission, Fast Track Courts have been established for dealing with cases of heinous crimes; cases involving senior citizens, women, children etc. The Central Government has approved a Scheme for setting up Fast Track Special Courts (FTSCs) across the country, for the expeditious disposal of pending cases of Rape and POCSO Act. As of 31.10.2024, 750 FTSCs including 408 exclusive  POCSO  (ePOCSO)  Courts  are  functional  in  30  States/UTs  across  the country,  which  have  disposed  of  more  than  2,87,000  cases.  To  fast-track  criminal cases involving elected MPs / MLAs, ten (10) Special Courts are functional in nine (9) States/UTs.
- v. Alternate  Dispute  Resolution  (ADR)  methods  have  also  been  promoted  whole heartedly.  Accordingly,  the  Commercial  Courts  Act,  2015  was  amended  on  20th August, 2018 making Pre-institution Mediation and Settlement (PIMS) mandatory in case  of  commercial  disputes.  Amendment  to  the  Arbitration  and  Conciliation  Act, 1996 has been made by the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Act, 2015 for expediting the speedy resolution of disputes by prescribing timelines. The Mediation Act, 2023 has also brought in suitable changes in the Commercial Courts Act, 2015 in order to promote ADRs. According to the said Mediation Act, any suit which does

not  contemplate  any  urgent  relief  shall  not  be  instituted  before  a  court  before  the plaintiff has exhausted the remedy of pre-litigation mediation which could be carried out by any authority as constituted under the Legal Services Authorities Act, 1987 or by  a  'mediation  service  provider'  under  the  Meditation  Act,  2023.  Further,  any mediated settlement agreement arrived at under Section 12-A shall be enforced in the same manner, as if it were a judgment or decree passed by court. If pre-institution mediation and settlement fails then a suit is instituted before a Commercial Court.

- vi. Lok Adalat is an important Alternative Disputes Resolution Mechanism available to the citizens. It is a forum where the disputes/ cases pending in the court of law or at pre-litigation  stage  are  settled/  compromised  amicably.   Under  the  Legal  Services Authorities  (LSA)  Act,  1987,  an  award  made  by  a  Lok  Adalat  is  deemed  to  be  a decree  of  a  civil  court  and  is  final  and  binding  on  all  parties  and  no  appeal  lies against thereto before any court. Lok Adalat is not a permanent establishment. National  Lok  Adalats  are  organized  simultaneously  in  all  Taluks, Districts and High Courts on a pre-fixed date. The details of the case disposed off in National Lok Adalats during the last three years are as under:-
- vii. Ministry  of  Law  and  Justice  had  been  implementing  a  unified  Pan-India  Central Sector Scheme namely 'Designing Innovative Solutions on Holistic Access to Justice India' (DISHA) that endeavours to provide comprehensive, integrated, technology-

| Year                 | Pre-litigation   | Pending Cases   | Total Cases   |
|----------------------|------------------|-----------------|---------------|
| 2021                 | 72,06,294        | 55,81,743       | 1,27,88,037   |
| 2022                 | 3,10,15,215      | 1,09,10,795     | 4,19,26,010   |
| 2023                 | 7,10,32,980      | 1,43,09,237     | 8,53,42,217   |
| 2024 (upto 09.11.24) | 6,46,35,285      | 1,26,34,580     | 7,72,69,865   |
| Total                | 17,38,89,774     | 4,34,36,355     | 21,73,26,129  |

based  citizen-centric  solutions  on  Access  to  Justice.  Under  the  Scheme  various programmes like Tele-Law, Nyaya Bandhu, and Legal Literacy & Legal Awareness are  being  mainstreamed  in  the  country.  The  scheme  aims  to  supplement  and complement the mandate given by the Constitution of India under Articles 14, 21 and 39A, to provide equal justice and free legal aid. DISHA also aims to abide by the statutory  requirements  of  the  Legal  Services  Act,  1987,  by  giving  impetus  to  the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16, especially the  aspect  of  providing  access  to  justice  for  all.  As  a  part  of  this  initiative,  the Government launched the Tele-Law programme in 2017, which provided an effective and  reliable  e-interface  platform  connecting  the  needy  and  disadvantaged  sections seeking  legal  advice  and  consultation  with  panel  lawyers  via  video  conferencing, telephone  and  chat  facilities  available  at  the  Common  Service  Centres  (CSCs) situated in Gram Panchayat and through Tele-Law mobile App.

*Percentage Wise break-up of Tele - Law Data

| Till 31 ST October, 2024   | Cases Registered    | %Wise Break Up      | Advice Enabled      | %Wise Break Up      |
|----------------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|---------------------|
| Gender Wise                | Gender Wise         | Gender Wise         | Gender Wise         | Gender Wise         |
| Female                     | 4014611             | 39.12               | 3963499             | 39.06               |
| Male                       | 6247980             | 60.88               | 6183286             | 60.94               |
| Caste Category Wise        | Caste Category Wise | Caste Category Wise | Caste Category Wise | Caste Category Wise |
| General                    | 2387060             | 23.26               | 2352649             | 23.19               |
| OBC                        | 3252495             | 31.69               | 3213067             | 31.67               |
| SC                         | 3246025             | 31.63               | 3215657             | 31.68               |
| ST                         | 1377011             | 13.42               | 1366312             | 13.47               |
| Total                      | 10262591            |                     | 10146785            |                     |

- viii. Efforts have been made to institutionalize pro bono culture and pro bono lawyering in the country. A technological framework has been put in place where the advocates volunteering to give their time and services for pro bono work can register as Pro

Bono  Advocates  on  Nyaya  Bandhu  (Android  &  iOS  and  Apps).  Nyaya  Bandhu Services also available on UMANG Platform. Pro Bono Panel of advocates has been initiated in 23 High Courts at the State level. Pro Bono Clubs have been started in 109 Laws Schools to instill Pro Bono culture in budding lawyers.

*****