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"Instead of citizens having to pursue the court, the court must reach out to citizens," said Supreme court judge, Justice Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud at the e-Inauguration of Virtual Courts & eSewa Kendra at Allahabad high court & District Courts on Monday, November 1.

At the event hosted by Allahabad High Court, 76 e-Sewa Kendra were e-Inaugurated. Discussing the need for such an initiative, Justice Chandrachud highlighted the digital divide that exists across the country. 

He said that traditionally for ICT(Information, communication, and technology), there is no need for a physical center as one can access the information available through ICT from wherever he/she is, but the reason why India, especially Uttar Pradesh, needs e-Sewa Kendra is because of the digital divide in India.

He stressed that though smartphones are proliferating, still, a large part of India's population does not have personal access to computers, laptops resulting in the great digital divide.

Therefore, stating that Judges and members of the Bar are representative of the society at large, Justice Chandrachud said that unless the true stakeholders i.e. Indian citizens through their representative in the judiciary, have access to the ICT, the mission that the e-committee of Apex court is working on, cannot be achieved. 

To be noted, Justice Chandrachud is the chairperson of the e-Committee, Supreme Court of India which is the governing body charged with overseeing the e-Courts Project conceptualized under the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary-2005".

Further highlighting the importance of the e-Sewa Kendra movement, Justice Chnadrachud said that it is to provide all the services that are part of the e-courts project, under one roof which is accessible in every establishment of the District judiciary. 

"Setting up a new thing is difficult in itself, but institutionalizing something which has already been set up is even more difficult", added Justice Chandrachud while stressing that for the successful running of the e-Sewa Kendras, permanent staff of the courts must be attached with these centers. 

However, he added that the idea of technology is not to make things more complex for court's own staff , district judges or members of the Bar, but it is to simplify the way, which courts work.

Remembering his tenure as Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, he also said that the judges of the courts have to take a very proactive role in training the members of the bar for using the computers, as he learned from his day one that nothing in Allahabad can succeed without the cooperation of the bar. 

He brought everyone's attention towards the fact that one of the missions of e-court project, which he chairs, is not to have a top-down approach, where Delhi decides everything, and then it is implemented by the high courts.

"Because I haven't forgotten my days as a judge of the high court and remember that India does not exist only in Delhi, it exists in the villages, in the small towns, in the cities across the country," he said. 

Therefore, the ownership of the e-court projects has been given to the high courts, he informed.

He also added that the e-committee of the Apex court has also filed rules on e-fling also, and already has an SOP in place for digitization.  "We’re working on the infrastructure for data privacy and data security," he said further. 

Talking about the criminal justice administration and technology, Justice Chandrachud said that one must bear some facts in mind. 

Pointing towards the pendency of criminal cases, Justice Chandrachud stated that across India, 2,95 Lakh criminal cases are pending in the district judiciary, of which about  77.5% cases are more than a year old.

"In Uttar Pradesh, 67.35 lakh criminal cases are pending of which 15,056 cases are more than 30 years old," he added.

 He said that Judges know that many of the cases are pending because of only two reasons, first- absconded accused who was granted bail, and second- non-appearance of official witnesses. 

Therefore, he said that this number can be reduced with the help of ICT by ensuring a police station wise list of cases where the accused is absconding, that can be escalated to every district so that the Superintendent of Police or his senior has the same data so as the Station House Officer of the Police station has the accountability.

The data will further be forwarded to the level of Inspector general which will create a graded hierarchy of responsibility, he further informed. 

Justice Chandrahud covered many other aspects also of the e-courts project. He stated that e-committee is now working on strengthening the interoperable criminal justice system (ICJS) which has aimed at integrating the crimes and criminals tracking network  & system CCTNS, the e-Courts, and the e-presence databases.

Appreciating the efforts initiated by the Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal and his dynamism, Justice Chandrachud said that, “Justice Bindal is in absolute hurry to achieve the result and to change the technological innovations in the Allahabad High Court and to make it representative not merely of the largest high court of the country but also as one of the best in the country."

The event was hosted by Allahabad High court and was also attended by Allahabad High Court CJ, Justice Rajesh Jindal, members of the computer committee- Justice Suryaprakash Kesarwani, Justice Ashwani Mishra, Justice Jaspreet Singh, Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Jayant Banerjee.