Approach:

Introduction: Highlight some issues about the Indian judiciary. Connect these with the eCourts project providing a brief about the project.

Body: Establish how digitization will improve accessibility, and mention how digitization will ensure the efficiency of the judiciary. Mention a few challenges with such digitization.

Conclusion: Suggest a few solutions to tackle the challenges and how such steps will lead to the realization of justice for every citizen.

Answer:

More than 4.7 crore cases are pending in courts across different levels of judiciary in India with outdated manual processes, issues in accessing the information on case status, and inadequate basic infrastructure at various district-level courts. This highlights the need for reform in Indian Judiciary by bringing in technology such as digitization.

E-Courts mission mode project is a Pan-India Project, monitored and funded by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice aimed at transforming the Indian Judiciary by leveraging information technology. The objective is to modernize the administration of justice in India, improve the efficiency of court processes, and provide citizens with easy access to information about the status of their cases through the digitization of court records, the implementation of electronic case management systems, and the creation of a centralized database of court proceedings.

Improvement in the accessibility of courts:

• Easy availability of information to citizens through online access to case status and proceedings in real time. It will ensure transparency and reduce the need to visit courts repeatedly.
• Saving time and effort of citizens by implementing electronic case management systems to allow citizens to file cases and submit documents electronically.
• Video conferencing in court proceedings reduced the burden of the common man regarding travel and helps make even the supreme court accessible to the people from remotest parts of the country.
• The provision of e- Seva centres present across high courts and district courts has made the judiciary accessible for the common man. As per Prime minister Modi, The e-Lok Adalat is now the new normal.
• Live streaming of cases through the use of technology will ensure greater public participation and reach of judgments to the masses.

Improvement in judicial efficiency:

• Implementation of automated case management can ensure the automation of manual processes such as docket management, scheduling, and document filing, to save time and effort for the judiciary.
• The availability of digital records will help speed up the decision-making process for the judges.
  1. Proper administration of justice will be ensured in case of no missing court records leading to the acquittal of the accused. In the State of Uttar Pradesh v. Abhay Raj Singh, it was held by the Supreme Court that if court records go missing and reconstruction is not possible, the courts are bound to set aside the conviction.
• The creation of a centralized database of court proceedings will facilitate enhanced collaboration among different courts and jurisdictions to improve information flow and reduce delays in the system.
• Reduction in the need for storage infrastructure for case files. This space could be utilized for increasing courtrooms and recruiting more judges for enhanced access to justice and speedy Justice delivery.
• It will help in better preservation of documents thus aiding in the function of supreme and high courts as courts of record to set future precedents.

However, there are certain challenges such as resource constraints, concerns of privacy, and cyber security in India with the potential of attacks on critical institutions such as the one that happened recently on AIIMS, Delhi. There are also practical difficulties in video conferencing in each case.

Above challenges should be put aside by multiple steps such as increasing digital literacy and technical know-how, having a dedicated authority to streamline funding for digitization, ensuring frequent software updates and regulation of technology developers for e-courts, etc. With multiple dedicated efforts, we can ensure the fulfilment of the goal of justice for every citizen of India as the preamble of our constitution also envisaged.