With a view to facilitating litigants and advocates, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has digitalised all the decided cases lying in the record room.
While speaking during a regional discussion regarding the e-Courts Project in the Chandigarh Judicial Academy here, Justice Madan B lokur, Judge, Supreme Court of India and In-charge, e-Committee, SC said that the e-Committee, Supreme Court, in consultation with the Central Government, had introduced the computerisation project ‘e-Courts Phase-I’ with total outlay of `900 crore to computerise the subordinate courts across the country with the aim of bringing about transparency, accountability and speedy disposal of cases by sharing case information with litigants and advocates.
The e-Courts Phase-I project has culminated in the National Judicial Data Grid, on which till date, 2.3 crore pending cases and 2.7 crore decided cases are available, said he.
The e-Committee has extended the e-Court programme to Phase-II with total outlay of `1,670 crore, out of which a sum of `200 crore was released for the purchase of hardware in 2015-16.
The representatives of participating High Courts presented work carried out under e-Courts Phases I and II and shared problems and best practices evolved and implemented by each High Court, Justice lokur added.
Presenting various citizen centric services introduced by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal said that the digitalisation exercise carried out in the court had resulted inscanning of 15.90 crore pages, along with disposal of 225 tonnes of waste papers, which generated revenue of `22 lakh and freed valuable space of 15,000 square feet.
He said that the court had also prepared e-Filing and e-Diary software for the convenience of litigants and advocates, who could file cases online from the comfort of their home. The unique features of e-Diary, whereby an advocate can save his case and browse the case information in real time along with judgment and orders passed by the courts, has brought in transparency into the system.
Digitalisation of court records has allowed sharing of soft files with the Advocate General Office, Union of India counsels and other departments, thereby enhancing quality of assistance offered by Government counsels, he added.
During the meeting, discussions were held on citizen centric services, implementation of solar energy in district and subordinate courts and implementation of improved version of Case Information System. Apart from this, demonstration of e-Filing module which enables the advocates and litigants to file cases online round-the-clock as per their convenience from their home by paying court fee online was also was also held.
This e-Filing software is likely to be launched for general public in August, 2016. Dissemination of information regarding cases through SMS, e-mail services, display boards and KIOSK installed in courts was discussed and recommended to be implemented at all levels.
The categorisation of cases, as carried out by the Punjab and Haryana High Court to facilitate expeditious decision of cases pertaining to senior citizens and crime against women, was also discussed at the meeting.