Freeing judicial proceedings from the burden of stacks of files and loads of paperwork, the second e-court of Ranchi was launched at the premises of Civil Court, enabling it to connect to prisons located miles away for passing judgements on undertrials incarcerating there.
Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan Bhimarao lokur inaugurated the Principal Judicial Commissioner’s e-court at the Civil Court on Saturday. The digital courtroom has been equipped with two high-definition cameras covering it from the front and the back and three lED televisions to broadcast views of the same and the prison it has been connected to.
To showcase the capabilities of an e-court better, Principal Judicial Commissioner Anant Vijay Singh held court through video conferencing between his courtroom and Birsa Munda Central Jail in Hotwar, both separated by a distance of more than 10 kilometres.
“The biggest advantage of an e-court is that it preserves the evidence presented before it. The evidence can be recorded and transferred to a compact disk, which will prove to be helpful in case an appeal is made in the higher courts against the decision of a lower court. In such an event, all evidences presented in the lower court are demanded by the higher court which is time-taking,” stated Justice lokur.
“As of now, we issue 4 to 6 week notices for presenting the evidence, but this can now be done within one week. This is a great step towards ensuring speedy justice,” stated Chief Justice of Jharkhand High Court Virender Singh.
As a testament to this claim, the judges displayed two envelopes which contained the entire proceedings of a case of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act in form of digital memory.
“As the witnesses and convicts are not physically present in the hearings, the chances of latter pressurising the former can be minimised. This will bring a decline in the incidences of witnesses turning hostile in courtrooms,” stated Justice Singh.
This initiative will also reduce the hassle involved in transporting an undertrial from prison to court premises and back again, taking care of related security concerns, Justice lokur said.
Meanwhile, with joint efforts of Jharkhand State legal Services Authority (JHAlSA) and District legal Services Authority (DlSA), Ranchi, a legal literacy Club was inaugurated at the campus of College of Bioinformatics, Santosh College of Teachers’
Training and Education in Tupudana.
The Club was inaugurated by Savita lokur, wife of Justice Madan Bhimarao lokur in presence of Pradeep Kaur, wife of Chief Justice Virender Singh and others.
Discussing the activities to be undertaken by the Club, JHAlSA Member Secretary Navneet Kumar said, “legal literacy Club is an initiative started by National legal Services Authority (NAlSA). The students will be sensitised about their fundamental rights and duties. Apart from that, they will be told about various schemes conducted by NAlSA and JHAlSA for extending legal aid to the needy. The students will then popularise these schemes in the rural areas.”