PM Narendra Modi and Chief Justice J S Khehar launched a comprehensive scheme at the court level to fuel digitisation drive in the country.
The first phase of the scheme is to engender a paperless drive in all courts across the country. This encapsulates paperless filing of appeals in the Supreme Court from July 3.
Innovation and reformatory approach is purposeful yet resisted by a larger section of public initially. This revolution will also find criticism and resistance, but gradually, it will get ingrained into the Indian legislative framework.
Justice Khehar spelled out that he was eyeing the idea of digitizing filing petition system ever since he had taken oath as CJI and acknowledged that the government had sanctioned a whopping Rs. 2,130 crore for the e-court mission mode project for 2016-17.
“…till December 2016, the judiciary had spent only Rs 88 crore,” the letter said. The concept of “sabka saath, sabka vikas” will be fuelled by the Integrated Court Management Information System, which will aid litigants in mitigating their issues.
“I have come to know that several HCs have reduced vacations. This gives strength to a sense of responsibility and helps generate new hope and faith in the common man about speedy justice,” Modi said while expressing appreciation for CJI and his team.
Digitisation will not only ensure that accurate records are available for references later, it will also eliminate the need of filing the same petition at multiple avenues like appellate courts.
Additionally, CJI Khehar said: “Only grounds of appeal need to be filed in the SC. It will save tons of paper used in filing of appeals and greatly help the environment. The system will automatically through SMS and email inform the litigant the court fee to be paid, the date of hearing and defects if any needing rectification.”
This is just the beginning in the digital story for Indian courts. We could hear more of such revolutionary steps which will help in advancing our country’s progressive journey.
