NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court’s Rs 2,700 crore e-courts project, touted to inject vitality into a snail-paced justice delivery system groaning under huge pendency, has been gathering dust for the last 14 months with the government.
The earnest resolve of successive governments to speed up disposal of cases has seldom been matched with adequate funds to decongest courts, provide them with infrastructure and, more importantly, employ information technology.
To achieve full computerization of all courts across India, the Supreme Court had set up an e-committee more than a decade ago and the first phase of computerization of courts was completed two years back. Since then, 5,000-odd new courts have come up, the old ones need better information technology tools and the judges need more computers.
The plan also included providing video-conferencing system between district courts and jails to enable courts to decide cases expeditiously without adjourning hearings because of absence of under-trial prisoners.
Keeping the requirements in mind, the e-committee headed by Justice Madan B Lokur had submitted a ‘policy and action plan document for phase-II of e-courts’ to the Chief Justice of India (CJI), who had approved it in January last year and sent it to the government for approval and release of funds.
The phase-II project involves full computerization of all 18,000-odd courts, which would include digitization of records and providing district judges with court docket management mechanism.
Docket management is an important tool to maximize the services of judicial officers by optimizing equal distribution of work among the available judicial manpower with a district judge, who on a click of mouse can find from the court website which judicial officer has how much work. Accordingly, he can redistribute work to achieve faster disposal of cases rather that allow wastage of manpower, e-committee sources told TOI.
Of the Rs 2,700 crore estimated expenditure in the next five years to make the judiciary fully IT-enabled, sources said the 14th Finance Commission has recommended sanctioning of approximately Rs 1,000 crore. The government has since accepted the recommendations of the Finance Commission.
However, the e-committee, which included the attorney general and top bureaucrats from ministries of law, communications and finance, feels that without the entire amount promised to be given in the next five years, it was difficult to start the project.
Ironically, the committee in its report had told the government that it was vital that “the implementation of the litigant friendly and reformative components of phase-II of the project can be taken up as early as possible, that is not later than October 1, 2014”. Six months after the deadline, the project still awaits the Centre’s nod.
TOI | Mar 3, 2015
Contact Lawyers In India : https://lawintellectindia.com/contact-us/