The advent of e-courts

The President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, recently launched National
e-Courts Project for extensive computerization of courts in the capital.

The project of computerization of courts has been devised
following the report submitted by the e-Committee on national policy and
technology in the Indian judiciary. The project is to be implemented in three
phases spread over a period of five years at a cost of Rs 854 crore.

Under the first phase spread over a period of two years,
computer rooms and judicial service center would be set-up in all 2,500 court
complexes. 15,000 judicial officers would be provided with laptops. Digital
inter-connectivity would be established between all courts from the Taluka level
to the apex court. It also creates structured database of all the stakeholders,
courts and cases with user-friendly retrievable facilities as well as digital
archiving of the SC and HCs.

The project also aims at creation of e-filling facility in the
SC and HCs. The outlay for the first phase of the project is Rs 442 crore.
Already the Ministry of Law and Justice has made available Rs 187.05 crore to
National Informatics Center (NIC) up to March 31, 2007 and the remaining amount
is being provided during the current FY.

The first phase would be completed by the end of the current
fiscal. The phase two would also be completed in the next two years following
which it would be possible to provide Information and Communication Technology (ICT)
coverage of judicial processes from filing to execution level and also of all
administrative activities.

The third and final phase would be of one-year duration. It
would lead to the creation of Information Gateways between courts and public
agencies and departments. The project is expected to lead to complete
demystification of the adjudicatory process thereby ensuring transparency,
accountability and cost-effectiveness.

Justice KG Balakrishnan, Chief Justice, India; HR Bhardwaj,
Minister for Law and Justice, India; A Raja, Minister for Communication and
Information Technology, India and judges of the SC and other senior judicial
functionaries were present during the launch.