Specific IDs will help the Centre monitor individual’s efficiency in case disposal. The idea is to speed up legal proceedings by setting up a paperless court in India.
The Centre plans to implement second phase of the “e-court” project by developing a unique digital signature for all the eminent members of judiciary employed in 17,000 courts around the country. The NIC (National Informatics Centre) directed by SC e-committee, shall connect these identities to NJDG database on cutting-edge software– Case Information System (CIS 2.0) to track judges performance based on case disposal rates, quality of judgement, total adjournments allowed in cases, total cases resolved and time taken for passing judgement. With this step, government intends to remodel the sluggish tribunal system for on-time delivery of cases.
This System Will Help the Apex Court Monitor Proceedings on NJDG Database
There are 650 judges working at higher courts and 16,000 subordinates appointed in lower courts. Judiciary maintains a record of case histories and court-specific orders, but there’s no data about judges involved in a particular case. In the absence of this information, it’s difficult for Honorable Supreme Court to monitor the number of cases assigned to each individual and the efficiency with which, the proceedings are held in court. Creating a publicly-available online NJDS (National Judicial Data Grid) will help SC resolve this problem in future.
The Benefits
- A centralized electronic problem comprising all details pertaining to legal proceedings will save time invested in case research. To ensure transparency, the data will be made available for public.
- The database shall consist of individual judge profiles, including a list of cases resolved by them in their entire career. This will help determine an individual’s vivaciousness, efficiency and capabilities.
- It’ll be mandatory for the adjudicators to provide details of their daily, weekly and monthly proceedings including reserved orders, total judgement passed on a log-sheet. It will compel them to close proceedings on time and help authorities track an individual’s current location, in case they’ve been promoted to the higher court.
- Additionally the system will include details of hearing, the reason for adjournments, schedule for next hearing, nature and complexity of a case. This way the apex case can determine case progress and suggest improvements/strategies at various stages.
Government shall equip the judges with laptops to promote digitization of legal system. Judges can view the e-copies of various cases and filed appeals, exchange information with different courts and pass instructions with their electronic signature. Efforts are being made to digitalize the entire system so that judges can deliver judgement in a digital format. Some courts have already made significant progress towards creating a paperless system. If successfully implemented, India will be the first country to develop a digital legal system in the world; thus, restoring public’s faith in Indian Judiciary.
