miscellaneous

India’s Preparedness for Virtual Hearing

INTRODUCTION

Future courtrooms can be decongested and virtual hearings can be a reality. The COVID-19 crisis is drawing the attention of the judiciary to review, accelerate the preparedness of the Indian legal system towards such e-courts. The present crisis has further delayed time period for getting a particular relief from court as the matters are being adjourned and hearing pertaining to urgent matters alone is happening. To and fro travelling of the litigants to court, adjournments have always been a cause of concern in pursuing a legal remedy in the long-drawn legal battle for a litigant. Undoubtedly, the present crisis has united India in terms of actions required to contain the disease but it is also time to introspect our preparedness to lead the economy, administration and legal system virtually to take care of “work from home” ability. In terms of the legal system, leap towards the e-court system would be a great boon for litigants too going way forward ahead of a crisis.

There are a total of 672 district courts in India and 25 High Courts in India and a Supreme Court of India.

NJDG

The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) provides data on the number of cases pending and disposed of by courts across India. For the purpose of analysis, the NJDG classifies data in various categories such as nature of the suit, the duration of its pendency, suits by women and senior citizens etc.

More than 2852 Districts and Taluka Court complexes have secured their presence on the NJDG portal ecourts.gov.in and are providing Case Status, Cause lists online with many of them also uploading orders/judgments. The data of more than 7 crores pending and disposed of cases and 3.3 crore orders/judgments of District Courts in India is available on NJDG at present.

E-COURTS

An e-court or “Electronic Court” means a location in which matters of law are adjudicated upon, in the presence of qualified judge(s) with a well-developed technical infrastructure. An e-court is different from a computerised court. In the case of e-court, everything is done in an “online environment” through the use of the internet and other Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools whereas in a computerised court is nothing more than a court equipped with computers and basic level hardware and software.

E-courts are aimed to make legal processes easier and more user friendly. In an e-court, the entire work is executed digitally, wherein, the information that is shared and generated is stored as a database and synched to particular software. This software can be accessed by litigants, judges and advocates. The primary intention of e-courts is to make the justice delivery system affordable, transparent, speedy and accountable by limiting the paper filings.

The eCourts Project was conceptualized on the basis of the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary – 2005” submitted by e-Committee, Supreme Court of India with a vision to transform the Indian Judiciary by ICT enablement of Courts. On August 7, 2013, Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India then launched the e-Courts National portal ecourts.gov.in of the eCourts Project.

PHASE-I OF E-COURT PROJECT

In Phase-I of the e-Courts Project beginning from 2007, a large number of Court Complexes, Computer Server Rooms and Judicial Service Centres were readied for computerization of the District Courts. The District and Taluka Court Complexes covered in Phase-I were computerized with the installation of hardware, LAN and Case Information Software (CIS), for providing basic case-related services to the litigants and the lawyers. A large number of District Courts launched their websites for the convenience of the different stakeholders. The Judicial Officers were trained by the Master Trainers trained from amongst them for continuing training programme.  The data entry for all pending cases has reached an advanced stage of completion. The Phase-I concluded with extended timelines up to March 30, 2015.

PHASE-II OF E-COURT PROJECT

The Policy and Action Plan Document Phase-II of the e-courts project received the approval of Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India on January 8, 2014. The government of India sanctioned the project on August 4, 2015. In Phase-II, the covered courts are provisioned for additional hardware with (1+3) systems per Court Room, the uncovered Courts of Phase-I and the newly established Courts with (2+6) systems per Court Room and the Court Complexes are provisioned for hardware, LAN etc.

In Phase-II, all the remaining Court Complexes are provisioned to be connected with Jails and Desktop based Video Conferencing to go beyond routine remands and production of under-trial prisoners. It will also be used for recording evidence in sensitive cases and gradually extended to cover as many types of cases as possible. With an emphasis on capacity building of judicial officers and Process Re-Engineering, the Phase-II provides for Judicial Knowledge Management System including Integrated Library Management System and use of Digital Libraries.

SUPREME COURT 

The Supreme Court of India amid COVID- 19 crisis is experimenting with
hearing without the presence of a lawyer using a video conferencing facility. The virtual court would be functional in Chief Justice Courtroom. The bench conducting the virtual courtroom to comprise CJ Bobde and Justice D Y Chandrachud. The lawyers would be seated 100 meters away in the old Court masters room.

PUNJAB & HARYANA

The Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana high court launched the first virtual court for handling traffic challans matter for the entire State of Haryana in the year 2019.  The project has been launched under the guidance of the e-committee of the Supreme Court of India. The virtual court was launched under the guidance of the e-Committee of the Supreme Court. Judges can view the cases received in the virtual court and the automatic computation of fines on the screen. Once the summons is generated, the accused will get information via email or a message on the SMS. Subsequently, the accused can visit the virtual court website and search for the case. If the accused pleads guilty, fine will be displayed on the screen and accused might proceed to pay the amount. On payment of the fine, the case will be disposed of. The software of the programme was developed by the National Informatics Center (NIC). The Phase-II of the project lays great emphasis on service delivery to the litigants, lawyers and other stakeholders.

DELHI

To facilitate online payments of traffic challans, Delhi’s first ‘virtual court’ was launched at Tiz Hazari courts. The Delhi District Courts under the aegis of the E-Committee, Supreme Court of India has already launched the virtual court’s web portal for online payment of traffic challans. The portal will cater to traffic challans digitally generated by the Delhi Traffic Police via the E-Challan application developed by the NIC. The portal was inaugurated by former Supreme Court justice Madan B Lokur and chief justice of Delhi High Court justice DN Patel. “All traffic challans except those where the vehicle is impounded can be disposed of by making an online payment at the portal. An officer of the rank of Metropolitan Magistrate presides over the virtual court,” the Delhi High Court said in a statement.

The court as per section 208 of the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988 will issue summons to the violator via mobile phone and email id of the violator. The message will contain a web link which on clicking will redirect the violator to the virtual court web portal. Thereafter, the violator may make payment of the traffic challan online or may opt to contest the challan as per law, the statement said.

In collaboration with the State Bank of India, a payment gateway had been provided for online payment. The violator will be able to make the online payment via credit card, debit card and/or online banking mechanism. Upon payment of the fine, an acknowledgement will be generated showing the disposal of challan and the transaction number.

The virtual court is a big milestone in the e-courts project. Prior to the launch of the virtual court, the Delhi District Courts have launched the e-filing in arbitration matters. The Delhi High Court has established the first e-court of India. The same became operational on December 8, 2009, in the court of Justice S Ravindra Bhat.

KARNATAKA

The Karnataka High Court turned to the concept of the virtual court amid COVID crisis into reality by digitally reaching out to an advocate in a remote location, straight from the court hall, for the live hearing of arguments in a case.

For the first time, digital connectivity was used for hearing a case live from a court hall and to connect to an advocate in a remote location. The High Court regularly uses its in-house videoconference facility in its three Benches at Bengaluru, Dharwad and Kalaburagi for hearing arguments when the judges and the advocates are present at different Benches or judges of a division Bench are at different locations.

In view of restrictions imposed on entry to the court complexes due to COVID-19, the High Court on March 21 notified temporary availability of virtual court facility to enable the advocates and litigants, who appear in person, to argue cases of extreme urgency through digital mode.

A Division Bench comprising Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Pradeep Singh Yerur on this Tuesday heard the arguments on an appeal arising out of an order passed by a family court through digital mode in court hall 2.

HYDERABAD

India got its first e-court on July 17, 2016, and it was inaugurated at the High Court of Judicature at Hyderabad. It will serve the netizens of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Supreme Court Judge Justice Madan B Lokur inaugurated the e-court and mentioned that Andhra Pradesh and Telangana were the first two states which will pave way for the Integrated Criminal Justice System (ICJS).  Also, the documents can be filed, received, filled online and will hence decrease the time spent on unnecessary commuting. It definitely cuts taking and receiving bribes to a certain extent.

CHATTISGARH

Nation’s second e-court fee system was made operational at Bilaspur high court on Wednesday in a bid to make justice delivery hassle-free, paperless and reduce delay in filing cases. Chhattisgarh is second to Delhi to launch the scheme after an MoU was signed between the state government and Stockholding Corporation of India Ltd, Mumbai. E-court fee is a web-based application that gives the convenience of paying court fee without hassles involved in obtaining physical judicial stamps. Moreover, the system is secure and reliable. Litigant and lawyers are required to pay court fee while admitting the litigation in court and need not visit court premises to make payment.

CONCLUSION
Virtual hearing is not only in need with the ongoing crisis in place but would also help to build a better bridge between pursuance of rights by litigants and the legal system. The establishment of virtual courts will also cut down voluminous paperwork in the legal system. Besides this would add efficiency in the legal system, functioning of lawyers, judges and the litigants. The COVID has initiated making virtual courts a reality but not to the state of a fully functional all India virtual court system. Ongoing digitisation and its impact can be seen in the Indian legal system. The current crisis no doubt has sent a red alert to the system to take a leap in e-court projects of making virtual courts in India a reality ASAP considering the importance of the legal system for a common man. We are living in age of technology and its aid to improve and better access any system should be explored fully for a functional democracy.
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