Analysis on Indian e-Judiciary system

INTRODUCTION

The Indian court has faced a number of pending cases in the region as well lower courts, which lay the groundwork for the implementation of ICT in the courts. Court projects empowering the courts to make the justice delivery system more cost-effective and affordable with the use of ICT in the justice system. This will help to improve court processes and provide better citizen services. The mission mode project aims to develop, implement and implement automated decision-making and decision support systems in the High Court, the High Court, and lower courts nationwide. Under the e-Courts project mode, it is proposed to use ICT in Indian courts in 3 phases. Phase II, which is currently underway, aims to establish one-stop filing centers, the digitalization of documents, approval of document management systems, e-filing performance, and e-payment gateways. However, there is a lack of awareness of the skills of the e-court project between judges and the public great.

CONCEPT OF E-COURTS

E-Courts are intended to simplify legal proceedings. In e-court, all the work is done digitally, where, shared and structured information is stored as a database as well synced with specific software. This software can be accessed by prosecutors, judges, and attorneys at any time anywhere. The main purpose of e-courts is to make the justice system cheaper, faster, transparent, and responsive by minimizing paper insertion. Project e-court mission mode project considered on the basis of “National Policy and Information Management System and Indian Communication Technology Communication Technology in 2005” prepared by e-Committee of the Supreme Indian court. The Strategic Plan proposes a three-phase implementation plan to integrate ICT into Indian courts.

COMPONENTS OF E-JUDICIARY SYSTEM

The main components of the E-Judiciary System in India are:

•    Construction of a computer room for all buildings/site renovations:

Dedicated living quarters ICT servers and related equipment (computer server / CSR room) are set individually in the lower court. The Judicial Service Center was also established in each court, as a citizen interaction counter for the provision of various services such as litigation and case investigations.

•    Providing Laptops and Laser Printers to Legal Judges:

Laptops are provided individually by the judicial officers so that they can work in their room, courtroom, and home office properly by the way. This project aims to increase the capacity of all judicial authorities to direct and direct the process of using computers in courts.

•    ICT Training for Judges and Their Staff:

ICT training will be provided to judicial officials and court staff to make them familiar and competent in the use of ICT tools.

•    Human Resources Technology:

Transfer of technical power to all regional courts, High Court, High Court Benches, and High Court under the project. The power of technology provides ‘problem-solving necessary support and retention and support of court training and assistance in the area of the transition from a manual case management system to ICT enabled.

•    Computer systems:

Enabling ICT sub-courts in the country, each court is equipped with the required computer such as desktops, printers, servers, and scans. Each judge and his assistant staff were provided with four customer equipment and three printers; Standard services are provided to small clients and printers, as well as ICT hardware such as servers and scanners are installed in computer server rooms in each court.

•    Power Backup:

Provided UPS and DG sets to create the required power support resources of ICT infrastructure in the court building. UPS provides powerful support for desktops and servers; DG sets are used to provide backup capacity for ICT infrastructure in the computer server and in the justice system Service Center.

•    High ICT Infrastructure Development and High Courts:

Existing ICT infrastructure has been improved in the High Court and in all the High Courts by offering additional servers, customer equipment, communication equipment, power infrastructure, cable, etc.

•     Application Software Development:

Unified National Core version 1.0 of Case Information Software was developed and distributed to regional and lower courts to make the case change administrative life cycle and all major processes such as litigation, review, registration, allocation, and diary/court proceedings. List of causes, case status, certified copies of orders, and a copy of judgments and made available for download or viewing online. This applies to almost every province.

•    System Software, Office Tools:

Software such as Operating System for Servers and Desktops and office tools provided to equipment/servers for clients.

•     Digital Signature:

Digital signature certificates are issued to all judicial officers. It empowers to sign a judgment or other electronic documents where necessary.

•    Creation and Development of a Single Program Management Center:

Central Center has was established to maintain the Network Operating Center and a central database, to manage a justice data grid and a dedicated database to be used by all judges. NIC status data Institutions will be used collaboratively to acquire each High Court information data server and National Data. The facility will be set up at the NIC Data Center and one disaster recovery site.

•    Video conference in about 500 places:

Video conference communication in progress established in 500 locations between prisons and district courts to allow for a meeting of judges by witnesses, holding conferences and meetings, the production of prisoners under trial, etc. That place will require incarceration and within court buildings.

CURRENT STATUS OF E-COURTS

The project aims to distribute Hardware, Software, and Network to help regional level and Taluk courts in improving their day-to-day operations. Key functions such as litigation, distribution, registration, workflow, orders, and judgment will be enabled by ICT. Cause Lists, Status, Orders, and Judgments will be available on the web and made accessible to plaintiffs, attorneys, and the general public. The project aims to build a National Grid of key justice information that is available around the clock in a reliable and efficient manner in a safe way. Data management, software developed by NIC called Case Information System (CIS) Software for regional and sub-trial courts has been tested in many major testing areas as well full functionality now. The Automated Mailing Service was recently launched giving details to certain cases and attorneys all happen with one email. SMS Push Service is widely used throughout the country and is very popular in remote areas where cell phones are offline they are used by lawyers. The government has brought in about 2,992 internet connections to regional and small courts across the country in late 2018. Under the latest section of the e-courts system, the government program Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will connect the lower courts with ‘wide’ local network connectivity at 167 crores. Video conferencing centers within 488 courts 342 buildings and associated prisons are also included. NJDG is an online platform that offers now details of the procedures and decisions of the 16,089 district-level courts. E-filing, E-pay, and NSTEP (National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes) applications have been created under the E-Courts project first introduced. India's Supreme Court for ICT empowerment of all regional and local courts. The value of electricity transactions performed under the E-court project according to data available among the top 5 players with an electronic transaction value of more than 40 crores. 

CONCLUSION

The introduction of E-Courts is a change in the Judicial Systems of India. More improvements due to the implementation of the E-Court for legal submissions have been proven over the years. Through the E-Court project, the dream of greater transparency and accountability in Indian justice is now a reality. The E-Courts project has played an important role in facilitating business in the country through automation and technical approval leading to the development of reports, and the installation of electronic case management tools an area to be used by judges and lawyers to monitor the status of a case, access court orders and decisions about a given case and the automatic execution of a hearing on all cases of a judge's docket. However, there are many challenges and challenges to be addressed in order to successfully implement the E-courts mode project.

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Author:

Damini Nagar
Indore
B.A LLB from Indore institution of Law