E-courts

Union Law minister Kiren Rijiju, in a written reply to a member's query in the Rajya Sabha said the govt has launched the eCourts Integrated Mission Mode Project in the country

Rijiju has termed the allocation as "unprecedented", which will create paperless courts for faster delivery of justice

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will participate in Constitution Day celebrations in the Supreme Court on Saturday, his office said. Since 2015, November 26 is observed as Constitution Day to commemorate the adoption of the Constitution of India by the Constituent Assembly in 1949. Earlier, the day was observed as Law Day. During the programme, the prime minister will launch new initiatives under the e-court project, a statement from the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Friday. The e-court project is an effort to provide services to litigants, lawyers and the judiciary through information and communication technology enabled courts, the statement pointed out. The initiatives being launched by Prime Minister Modi include 'virtual justice clock', 'JustIS' mobile app 2.0, digital court and 'S3WaaS' websites. The virtual justice clock is an initiative to exhibit vital statistics of the justice delivery system at the court level, giving the details of cases instituted, cases disposed

Since the Budget season is coming soon, the central and state governments must consider the new costs of virtual courts

Litigants will gain in the long run as digital justice will be faster and cheaper

Courts must make up for the time lost in hesitating to adopt modern technology

China is encouraging digitisation to streamline case-handling within its sprawling court system using cyberspace and technologies like blockchain and cloud computing

With reference to M J Antony's column, "Turning a mirror to judiciary" (May 10), one of the important reforms the judiciary should undertake is the application of information and communication technology for speedy disposal of cases and to free innocent undertrials from jail. The establishment of e-courts or virtual courts; computerisation at all levels of the courts, coupled with imparting training in legal e-literacy; video-conferencing are all in line with the spirit of e-governance and represent a major step towards modernisation of the judiciary.C V Krishna Manoj HyderabadLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number