A regional discussion regarding e-courts project was held in the Chandigarh Judicial Academy on Monday with Justice Madan B lokur, Judge, Supreme Court of India and Incharge, e-committee presiding over the discussion.
During the discussion, it was decided that since the entire e-Courts Project is set for the benefit of public, therefore, it be widely publicised informing public about availability of various services for exercising their rights. Justice lokur also emphasised that High Court and State Government should work in corroborating manner as e-Courts Project not only makes Court work convenient for general public but also saves crores of rupees from State exchequer. liberal funding of e-Court Projects was stated to be in the interest of state, judiciary and people of India.
Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chairman, Computer Committee presented various Citizens Centric Services initiated by Punjab and Haryana High Court. It was informed that all the decided cases lying in the record room of the High Court have been digitalised. This digitalization exercise resulted in scanning of 15.90 crores pages along with disposal of 225 tones of waste papers generating revenue of Rs. 22,00,000 from sale of the waste papers and more importantly freeing valuable space of 15,000 square feet.
An official spokesman of Punjab & Haryana High Court said that E-Committee, Supreme Court of India in consultation with Central Government came up with computerization project "e-Courts Phase-I" having total outlay of Rs. 900 crores out of which Rs.700 crores were spent.
Purpose of Phase-I was to computerise subordinate Courts in the country with aim to bring about transparency, accountability and speedy disposal of cases by sharing case information with the litigants and advocates. e-Courts Phase-I Project has culminated in National Judicial Data Grid whereupon as on date 2 crore 30 lacs pending cases and 2.70 crore decided cases are available.
Demonstration of e-Filing module enabling the advocates and litigants to file cases online 24x7 as per their convenience from their home by paying Court fee online was also demonstrated by member Secretary e-committee. E-filing software is likely to be launched for general public in August, 2016.
Decimation of information regarding cases through SMS, e-mail services, display boards & KIOSK installed in the Courts was discussed and recommended to be implemented at all levels. Need to educate public about facilities available to them was stressed and it was agreed that wide publicity be given to citizen centric services to make public aware of their rights.
Justice Rajesh Bindal, Justice Arun Palli and Justice Amit Rawal from Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Tashi Rabstan from Jammu & Kashmir High Court, Justice Dharam Chand Chaudhary and Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan from Himachal Pradesh and Justice V.S. Siradhana from Rajasthan High Court, Kusumjit Sidhu, Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Justice and Atul Kaushik, Joint Secretary to the Government of India, Department of Justice, Central Project Coordinators, NIC Coordinators, Member Secretaries of E-Committee, Supreme Court of India, Secretaries (Finance) and law Secretaries from the participating States have attended the discussion.