Lok Sabha Question No. 1174 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-09
Subject: e-Courts
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Anto  Antony, D. Ravikumar, S. Jothimani

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1174 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 09 th  FEBRUARY, 2024

## e-Courts

## 1174. SHRI ANTO ANTONY: SHRI RAVIKUMAR D.: MS. S. JOTHIMANI:

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

- (a) whether the Government proposes to develop e-courts through Phase III for operation  of  various  courts  including  High  Courts  and  District  Courts across the country, constituency-wise;
- (b) if so, details thereof including the total outlay in Phase III of the e-Courts project including virtual hearings, establishment of virtual benches of the High Courts etc., State-wise;
- (c) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  an  assessment  of  usefulness  of Phase I and Phase II in enabling citizens' access to justice, if so, the details thereof;
- (d) if not, the basis on which the Government decided to substantially increase the allocation for Phase III; and
- (e) whether the Government has formulated any standard operating procedure for the implementation of the Phase III of e-courts project, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## 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)  to  (b)  :As  part  of  the  National  eGovernance  Plan,  the  eCourts  Mission  Mode Project  is  under  implementation  for  Information  and  Communication  Technology

(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  by  Department  of  Justice  in association with eCommittee Supreme Court of India.

eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase I of the eCourts project was implemented between  2011-2015.  It  focused  on  the  basics  of  computerisation  like  setting  up computer hardware, ensuring internet connectivity, and operationalizing the e-Courts platform. Against the financial outlay of Rs.935 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs.639.41 crore for implementation of this phase.

Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project extended from 2015-2023. It focused on ICT enablement of District & Subordinate Courts and various citizen centric  initiatives  such  as  ePayments,  eFiling,  virtual  courts  to  handle  traffic challans,  hearings  using  Video  Conferencing.  Against  the  financial  outlay  of Rs.1670 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs. 1668.43 crore for implementation of  this  phase.  Under  this  phase  18735  district  and  subordinate  courts  have  been computerized, WAN connectivity has been provided and the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) created.

The  Union  Cabinet  in  its  meeting  held  on  13.09.2023  approved  eCourts Phase-III  with  a  budgetary  outlay  of  Rs.7210  crorespread  over  4  years  (2023 onwards).  Subsequently,  in  October  2023,  Rs.  225  crore  has  been  released  for eCourts Phase III by the Ministry of Finance from the Contingency Fund, out of which Rs. 102.50 crore has been allocated to BSNL and NIC and Rs. 110.24 crore has been sub-allocated to various High Courts for scanning and digitization, e-Sewa Kendras, IT Hardware for existing and newly setup courts, solar power backup etc. Rs. 600 crore has recently been received as RE for FY 2023-24. Taking the gains of Phase-I and Phase-II to the next level, e-Courts Phase-Ill aims to usher in a regime of maximum ease of justice by moving towards digital, online and paperless courts through  digitization  of  the  entire  court  records  including  legacy  records  and  by bringing in universalization of e-Filing/ e-Payments through saturation of all court

complexes  with  e-Sewa  Kendras.  It  will  put  in  place  intelligent  smart  systems enabling data-based decision making for judges and registries while scheduling or prioritizing  cases.  The  main  objective  of  the  Phase-III  is  to  create  a  unified technology platform for the judiciary, which may provide a seamless and paperless interface between the courts, the litigants and other stakeholders. The project will help  provide  a  smoother  user  experience  by  building  a  'smart'  ecosystem.  The eCourts Phase-III may thus prove to be a game changer in ensuring ease of justice by making the Court experience convenient, inexpensive and hassle free to all the citizens  of  the  country.  The  various  components  of  eCourts  Phase  III  including digitization of 3108 crore pages of legacy records, cloud infrastructure,4400 fully functional eSewa Kendras in all court complexes, and use of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, etc along with its financial details are at Annexure I.

(c):  Yes,  Sir.  Third-Party  Evaluation  has  been  conducted  by  National  Council  of Applied  Economic  Research  (NCAER)  for  eCourts  Project  Phase  II  and  key findings are as follows:

- The eCourts Project has led to an increase in the total number of cases filed in the courts and helped with easier access to information through online portals and mobile applications.
- A high level of satisfaction was expressed with the access and quality of the various ICT facilities provided under the eCourts project.
- The procurement process by the eCommittee, Supreme Court of India is well planned and all payments are received on time.
- Judges are satisfied with the improvement in court time management and transparency  of  information  that  has  resulted  from  implementation  of eCourts project.
- 90-100% of  sample  courts  have  provision  of  computers  hardware  and have installed Case Information System (CIS).

- High proportion of judges and court officials had received training in the use  of  CIS,  NJDG  and  hardware.  Almost  all  respondents  were  of  the opinion that the trainings were very useful.
- Services like Case Information System (CIS), JustIS mobile app and The National  Judicial  Data  Grid  (NJDG)  website  are  used  very  often  and have an easy user interface.
- Majority  of  judges  and  court  official  feels  that  eCourts  project  has reduced pendency of cases because of easy access to cases laws resulting in better research.
- The  pendency  of  cases  over  5  years  have  displayed  slow  but  steady decline over the years.
- Since 2017, a sharp increase in the clearance rate of district courts is also noticed.

(d) : Phase III of eCourts Project is leveraging technology to the next higher level as compared  to Phase II by incorporating latest modern  state of the art interventions in the form of digitization of court records, cloud storage and use of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning& Blockchain for putting in place  a  regime  of  end  to  end  digital  and  paperless  courts. Accordingly, the Detailed Project Report (DPR) incorporating these interventions has estimated a total project cost of Rs.7210 crore (as illustrated at Annexure I) which is four times the allocation of Phase II.

(e):eCourts project is being implemented in association with eCommittee, Supreme Court  of  India,  headed  by  Hon'ble  Chief  Justice  of  India,  and  Department  of Justice,  in  a  decentralized  manner  through  the  respective  High  Courts.  The eCommittee is responsible for the policy planning, strategic direction and guidance for implementation of eCourts project and works in collaborative partnership with Department of Justice which is responsible for providing necessary funding for the

project.  A Vision Document was prepared by the eCommittee and placed in the public domain for their comments. After incorporating the suggestions, a Detailed Project  Report  was  prepared  by  the  eCommittee  which  provides  the  complete outline  of  eCourts  Phase  III.  In  addition,  the  eCommittee  has  issued  Standard Operating  Procedures  (SOPs)  for  various  activities  like  Video  Conferencing,  eFiling, Digitization, etc and circulated to all the High Courts for their guidance.

*****

## Annexure I

Statement  referred  to  in  reply  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  1174  for 09/02/2024  regarding  e-Courts.The  components  and  financial  details  of  eCourts Phase III are as below:

Cost Estimate

| S.No.   | Scheme Component                                                |   Cost Estimate (Total (In Rs. Cr.)) |
|---------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------|
| 1       | Scanning, Digitization and Digital Preservation of Case Records |                              2038.4  |
| 2       | Cloud Infrastructure                                            |                              1205.23 |
| 3       | Additional hardware to existing courts                          |                               643.66 |
| 4       | Infrastructure in newly set up courts                           |                               426.25 |
| 5       | Virtual Courts                                                  |                               413.08 |
| 6       | eSewa Kendra                                                    |                               394.48 |
| 7       | Paperless Court                                                 |                               359.2  |
| 8       | System and Application Software Development                     |                               243.52 |
| 9       | Solar Power Backup                                              |                               229.5  |
| 10      | Video Conferencing set-up                                       |                               228.48 |
| 11      | e- filing                                                       |                               215.97 |
| 12      | Connectivity (Primary + Redundancy)                             |                               208.72 |
| 13      | Capacity Building                                               |                               208.52 |
| 14      | CLASS (Courtroom Live-Audio Visual Streaming System)            |                               112.26 |
| 15      | Project Management Unit                                         |                                56.67 |
| 16      | Future Technological Advancements                               |                                53.57 |
| 17      | Judicial process re-engineering                                 |                                33    |
| 18      | Disabled friendly ICT enabled facilities                        |                                27.54 |
| 19      | NSTEP                                                           |                                25.75 |
| 20      | Online Dispute Resolution (ODR)                                 |                                23.72 |
| 21      | Knowledge Management System                                     |                                23.3  |
| 22      | e-Office for High Courts &District Courts                       |                                21.1  |
| 23      | Integration with Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS)  |                                11.78 |
| 24      | S3WAAS platform                                                 |                                 6.35 |
|         | TOTAL                                                           |                              7210    |