Soon, A 24/7 Digital Window to File Cases from Anywhere

NEW DELHI: Limiting the role of registry in prioritising cases, the phase-III of the e-Courts project, currently in draft stage, has proposed a 24/7 digital window to litigants and lawyers to file cases from anywhere, anytime with provision of scheduling digital hearings in an open court, ensuring compliance of timelines by both judges and litigants.
Use of artificial intelligence (AI) has been proposed to “intelligently recommend schedules for hearing by optimising and coordinating the schedules and time of different actors (judges, lawyers and litigants).”

The Centre’s ambitious eCourts project, initiated in 2005, has completed two phases so far. At a cost of Rs 2,300 crore, it has computerised almost all 19,000 functional district and subordinate courts with broadband connectivity and equipping judges and each courtroom with modern communication gadgets. The Supreme Court eCommittee is responsible for its policy planning and strategic direction.
The next phase of the judicial reforms envisages complete transformation of Indian courts into a digital platform — having facilities of ePay, eSummons, eHearings and eJudgment — where litigants will have the luxury of appearing remotely, scheduling hearings at his/her convenience and an option of choosing alternate dispute resolution mechanism or a regular case while eFiling.

It has proposed an interoperable criminal justice system where connectivity between courts, prison and police will be leveraged to ensure speedy trial of cases and limiting adjournments on account of non-appearance of witnesses or unavailability of lawyers. The digital court will provide for a data exchange protocol embedded with a privacy policy. During the second phase of the eCourts project, more than 3,400 courts have already been made video-conference compatible, providing connectivity with prisons. These facilities are already available in High Courts and the Supreme Court.
The phase-III of the eCourts project also proposes to enable transcription of court proceedings from audio/video format to typed digital record that can be made available to litigants and lawyers as authenticated digital court record immediately after the end of the hearings.
“Live streaming or sharing recorded court proceedings can enable courts to become more open. Similarly, leveraging technology to enable transcriptions of court proceedings can enable courts to realise their full potential to become ‘courts of record’,” according to the draft proposal put up on the website of the Justice department seeking stakeholders’ suggestions.

The court registry will be converted into a digital case registry where each case will be given a unique number that will help it in locating while moving from one level to another, without the need of refiling of documents in case of appeal in higher courts.
“Better scheduling mechanisms, online digital filings, and different mediums of hearings will provide certainty of events, increase access to courts from anywhere, and advance access to timely justice,” the draft proposal has said while emphasising on “open court” system where hearings and court proceedings are opened to public for more transparency and accountability.

Source: TNN