A new addition has been made towards the establishment of Digital India on February 12, 2020 by the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court Ravi Shankar Jha, who launched an eStatement module at Chandigarh High Court.
This move was to eliminate manual generation of statements by District Courts in the States of Punjab and Haryana and the Union Territory Chandigarh. This step shall ensure that through CIS (Case Information System) there will be auto generation of statements from High Court.
The judges of High Court were also there on the occasion and observed that automatically signed certificates will soon be issued under the guidance of the Computer Committee of the High Court. These efforts will lead to abolition of 30 registers which were manually uodated on a daily basis.
The move is in accordance with the ‘Go Green Drive’ which aims to save paper, time and money.
Justice Madan B Lokur the chaiperson of Supreme Court E-committee ensured a year back that the High Courts of India will soon be functioning digitally.
This effort of Punjab and Haryana High Court ensures that the Judiciary will soon be functioning completely in the digital arena. This will ensure decrease in paper work and increase in transparency.
Positive Effects of Technology on Judiciary
- Paperless Courts- E-litigation is visible in Singapore which helped in reducing stacks of papers in the Court, such technology is essential to be ensured in India where there are countless number of files and infinite paper work.
- National Data Grid- A National Data Center could be established to hold all information concerning pending work, filings, stages, disposals, and subject matters of all cases.The system could automatically compare and help lower Courts to speedily render justice in cases where there exist precedents and stop frivolous cases from being filed.
- Transparency- The reach of technology in courts will aid in increasing transparency in the system. The digitisation of records and removal of the human element of filing would drastically reduce corruption and ease the burden on common people.
- Under trial Prisoners- If an online database would regulate and track how long an under-trial prisoner has spent in prison and fast-track cases where a person has been imprisoned for long periods without a trial, it would drastically reduce the burden on prisons and free undertrials.
- E-Witness- There are certain courts which have stared the E- Examination of Witness but such a thing is not seen on a wide scale. However there are ample advertisements of Digital India yet we have not touched the desired scale.
There are judicial officers complaining that there is not enough space left to store documents in the Court room and dust has been an issue but if the system is equipped with technology such issues would not find any place to subsist. A data system which will have entire records along with proper assortment will aid in the day to day work, efficiency and convenience of the courts which will definitely improve.
Author: Aarya Mishra
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