eCOURTS MISSION MODE PROJECT
eCOURTS MISSION MODE PROJECT
The eCourts Mission Mode Project is under implementation for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development of the Indian Judiciary. The Department of Justice, Government of India is implementing eCourts Project in close coordination with the eCommittee of Supreme Court of India, in a decentralized manner through the respective High Courts.
Phase I of the project was implemented during 2011-2015 and focused on the basics of computerisation like setting up computer hardware, ensuring internet connectivity, and operationalizing the e-Courts platform. Against an outlay of Rs. 935 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs. 639.41 crore for implementation of this phase. The following initiatives were undertaken in this phase:
Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project (2015-2023), focused on ICT enablement of District & Subordinate Courts and various citizen centric initiatives. Against an outlay of Rs.1670 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs. 1668.43 crore for implementation of this phase. Till 2023, digital infrastructure has been provided to 18,735 courts.
The following e-initiatives have been undertaken by the Government under eCourts Project to make justice accessible and available for all: –
eCourts Phase III (2023-2027) has been approved by the Union Cabinet in Sep’2023 at an outlay of ₹7,210 crore, which is over four times the funding for Phase II. The project envisages various new digital initiatives such as establishment of Digital and Paperless Courts that aim to bring court proceedings under a digital format, digitization of court records (both legacy records and pending cases), expansion of video conferencing facilities to courts, jails and hospitals, scope of online courts beyond adjudication of traffic violations, saturation of all court complexes with eSewa kendras, state of the art and latest Cloud based data repository for easy retrieval and supporting the digitized court records, software applications, live streaming, and electronic evidence etc., use of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and its subsets like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) etc. for analysis of case pendency, forecasting future litigation, etc. Thus, the efforts of the Government of integrating technology with the governance may prove to be a game changer in eCourts Phase III, ensuring ease of justice by making the Court experience convenient, inexpensive and hassle free to all the citizens of the country.
This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law & Justice, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.
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- 14,249 District and Subordinate courts were computerized.
- LAN was installed at 13,683 courts, hardware provided in 13,436 courts and software was installed in 13,672 courts.
- Laptops were provided to 14,309 judicial officers and change management exercise completed in all High Courts.
- Over 14,000 Judicial Officers were trained in the use of UBUNTU-Linux Operating System.
- More than 3900 court staff were trained in Case Information System (CIS) as System Administrators.
- Video Conferencing facility was operationalised between 493 court complexes & 347 corresponding jails.