Minister of Law and Justice, Kiren Rijiju informed Lok Sabha that the District courts heard 1,08,36,087 cases while the High Court heard 57,39,966 cases (totalling 1.65 Cr) till 30.11.2021 using video conferencing only. The Supreme Court heard 1,81,909 cases till 08.01.2022 through virtual hearing.
He replied to an Unstarred Question regarding a proposal for establishment of Virtual Courts in view of positive effect during Covid pandemic and the number of service centres setup for the e-courts by the Department of Justice presently.
He informed Lok Sabha that Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available. Additional 1500 VC Licenses have been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers.
He further stated that 2399 Judicial Service Centres (JSC) have been established to serve as a single window for filing petitions and applications by litigants / lawyers, and for obtaining information on ongoing cases and copies of orders and judgments etc. In addition, eSewa Kendras have been rolled out to bridge the digital divide by providing eFiling services to lawyers and litigants. Government has released Rs. 12.54 crore for setting up eSewa Kendras. As on 31.12.2021, 451 eSewa Kendra’s have been made functional in District Courts under 25 High Courts.
Training programs and awareness campaigns have been conducted from time to time to train various stakeholders and familiarise them with court digitisation initiatives.
Picture Source : https://twitter.com/KirenRijiju/photo
