Lok Sabha Question No. 1272 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-02-09
Subject: e-Courts
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Dhal Singh Bisen, Pushpendra Singh Chandel, Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, P.P. Chaudhary

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. †1272

## TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 9 th  FEBRUARY, 2024

## e-Courts

## †1272. DR. DHAL SINGH BISEN:

SHRI KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL:

DR. (PROF.) KIRIT PREMJIBHAISOLANKI:

SHRI P.P. CHAUDHARY:

Will the MINISTER OF LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  proposes  to  implement  the  e-Courts  mission mode project;
- (b) if so, the details of the steps taken by the Government under the various phases of the project including policy initiatives for creation of necessary
- infrastructure for e-courts;
- (c) the number of courts with the requisite digital infrastructure along with the  status  of  implementation  of  the  e-Court  project,  State-wise  and district-wise;
- (d) the manner in which the personal data is maintained in these courts and safety measures in place to check data breach; and
- (e) the training and awareness programme for judicial staff regarding the use
- of e-courts?

## 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 (c): 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.   Phase I of the eCourts project was implemented between 2011-2015. It aimed at computerization of courts and providing network connectivity. Phase I of the e-Courts project was largely  aimed  at  procuring  and  installing  hardware  and  providing  network connectivity  LAN.  It  operationalised  the  national  e-Courts  portal  with  limited online services. Phase II of the project extended from 2015-2023. The Government has taken the following e-initiatives to make justice accessible and available for all in eCourts Phase II: -

- i. Under  the  Wide  Area  Network  (WAN)  Project,  connectivity  has  been provided to 99.4% (2977 out of earmarked 2994) of total Court Complexes across India with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.
- ii. 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  24.79 crore  cases  and more than 24.53 crore orders / judgments (as on 02.01.2024).
- iii. Case  Information  Software  (CIS)  based  on  customized  Free  and  OpenSource  Software  (FOSS)  has  been  developed.    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.
- iv. A new software patch and court user manual for COVID-19 management has also been developed.  This tool will help in smart scheduling of cases thereby enabling judicial officers to retain urgent cases and adjourn cases not urgent on cause list.   A user manual for this patch has also been issued for the ease of the stakeholders.
- v. 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 (4,74,371 SMS sent daily), Email (6,06,818 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  2.15  downloads  till  31.12.2023)  and JustIS app for judges ((19,461 downloads till 31.12.2023).

- vi. India has emerged as a global leader in conducting court hearing through Video Conferencing. The District & Subordinate courts heard 2,17,99,976 cases while the High Courts heard 82,76,595 cases (totalling 3 crore) till 31.12.2023 using video conferencing system. The Hon'ble Supreme Court of India held 6,24,427 hearings through video conferencing till 04.01.2024. 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.
- vii. Live  Streaming  of  court  proceedings  has  been  started  in  High  Courts  of Gujarat, Gauhati, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, Madhya Pradesh & Hon'ble Supreme Court of India thus allowing media and other interested persons to join the proceedings.
- viii. 25  Virtual  Courts  in  20  States/UTs  have  been  operationalized  to  handle traffic challan cases. More than 4.24 crore cases have been handled by 25 virtual  courts  and in  more  than 47 lakhs (47,51,482) cases online fine of more than Rs. 492.79 crore has been realized till 31.12.2023.
- ix. 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 21 High Courts have adopted the model rules of e-Filing as on 31.12.2023.
- x. 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  21  High  Courts  have  implemented  e-

payments  in  their  respective  jurisdictions.  The  Court  Fees  Act  has  been amended in 23 High Courts till 31.12.2023.

- xi. To bridge the digital divide, 880 eSewa Kendras have been rolled out with the  intention  of  facilitating  the  lawyer  or  litigant  who  needs  any  kind  of assistance  ranging  from  information  to  facilitation  and  eFiling.  It  also assists  the  litigants  in  accessing  online  e-Courts  services  and  acts  as  a saviour for those who cannot afford the technology or are located in farflung  areas.  It  also  aids  to  addresses  the  challenges  caused  by  illiteracy among citizens at large. It will provide benefits in saving time, avoidance of exertion, travelling long distances, and saving cost by offering facilities of  e-filing  of  cases  across  the  country,  to  conduct  the  hearing  virtually, scanning, accessing e-Courts services etc.
- xii. 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.
- xiii. 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.

The  Union  Cabinet  in  its  meeting  held  on  13.09.2023  approved  eCourts Phase-III  with  a  budgetary  outlay  of  Rs.7210  crore.  Subsequently,  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.  eCourts  Phase  III  envisages state  of  the  art  and  latest  Cloud  based  data  repository  for  easy  retrieval; paperless  courts;  video  conferencing  facilities  to  be  expanded  to  also  cover district hospitals; Live Streaming of court proceedings and expansion of the

scope  of  Virtual  Courts.  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  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 High Court wise details of implementation of eCourts in the country has been attached at Annexure-I.

- (d) :  The  Supreme  Court  of  India  in  its  decision  in  Justice  K  S  Puttaswamy (Retd.)  v.  Union  of  India  has  held  that  right  to  privacy  is  protected  as  an intrinsic part of right to life and personal liberty under Article 21 and as a part of the freedoms governed by Part III of the Constitution. To balance the right of privacy, right to information and data security, a Sub-Committee consisting of  six  judges  of  the  High  Courts,  assisted  by  technical  working  group members consisting of domain experts, has been constituted by the Chairperson  of  the  e-Committee  to  suggest/recommend  secure  connectivity and  authentication  mechanisms  for  data  protection  to  preserve  the  right  to privacy. The Sub-Committee is mandated to critically assess and examine the digital infrastructure, network and service delivery solutions created under the e- Courts project for giving solutions for strengthening data security and for protecting  the  privacy  of  citizens.  Following  institutional  arrangements  for Data and Cyber Security are already in place:
- In eCourts Phase II, public facing applications developed centrally and hosted  on  central  infrastructure  is  taken  care  of  by  the  National Informatics  Centre  as  per  their  comprehensive  guidelines  for  secure application and infrastructure.
- These  applications  are  audited  periodically  by  NIC  through  CERTIN empanelled vendor.

- Comprehensive  Cyber  Security  Audit  of  eCourts  Applications  and Infrastructure was completed under guidance of eCommittee.
- (e) :  As  per  the  data  received  from  eCommittee,  Supreme  Court  of  India  the training and awareness programmes conducted from May 2020 to December 2022 for judicial staff in shown in below table.

| Year                        |   Number of Trainings |   Number of Participants |
|-----------------------------|-----------------------|--------------------------|
| May 2020-December 2020      |                    15 |                    70960 |
| January 2021- December 2021 |                    23 |                    25397 |
| January 2022- December 2022 |                   197 |                   143773 |

****

## Annexure-I

Statement  referred  to  in  reply  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  1272  for  09/02/2024 regarding e-Courts. The details of implementation of eCourts in the country are as under:

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