Justice.gov.in – On Court’s digitisation programmes

Source: This post is based on the article “Justice.gov.in”, published in Times of India on 24^th feb. 2023.

Syllabus Topic: GS Paper 2, Functioning of judiciary.

News: Supreme Court recently introduced live transcription of court proceedings on a screen and published the transcripts on its website.

What are the other digital initiatives of judiciary in India?

Other than that Supreme Court is already making use of virtual hearings and e-filing.

Digitisation of the Bombay high court library, with its 1. 25 lakh books and records, which date back to the 1800s. Other HCs have done their bit.

In 2021 Orissa HC started a Record Room Digitisation Centre, the country’s first, and by mid-2022 it had reportedly digitised almost 5. 2 lakh files.

Only last month Delhi HC introduced software for online inspection of digitised judicial files, another first.

And in a different kind of but equally important reform, Kerala HC recently published two judgments in a regional language, Malayalam.

What are the benefits of digitisation of judicial system?

Technology can make courts and records accessible to the general public, students, researchers and archivists.

It reduces their carbon footprint.

What are the challenges of digitisation of judicial system?

Digital system is also vulnerable to breaches. For example, AIIMS ransomware episode. Therefore, before digitisation security infrastructure must be made robust.