Acting CJ inaugurates seven ICT projects

For the convenience of litigants and advocates, Acting Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar, on Thursday inaugurated seven Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enabled projects.  High Court’s Computer Committee chairman Justice Hemant Gupta explained the functionalities of the projects.

“The Punjab and Haryana High Court may be the only High Court in the country which has scanned 22 lakh cases comprising 14 crore pages, 48 lakh interim and final orders. The orders are available on click of mouse,” said Justice Gupta. He said that in the process of digitalisation of court record, more than 206 tones, equivalent to 112 truck load, of waste paper have been weeded out resulting in availability of valuable space. 

Scanning of judicial record has streamlined issuance of copies, inspection of files, facilitated paperless court and record keeping resulting in decentralization of control and availability of judicial record at click of mouse without there being any actual file moment, he added.Justice Gupta said that paperless courts and e-filing future of court proceedings have started. “Soon, computers would be installed in court room for advocates to provide e-files of cases fixed in court,” he said.

Since January 2015, as many as 56,000 accused persons facing trial have been produced in the subordinate courts through video conferencing saving transportation expenses as well as reducing security risks, he said, adding that with lesser movement of prisoners, the escort police officials are now available for law and order duties. litigants and advocates can enquire about live status of their case at any time in Court premises, he said.