The Minister of Law and Justice, Shri Kiren Rijiju in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today informed that the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a database of orders, judgments and case details of connected District & Subordinate Courts and High Courts created as an online platform on which data is updated on a near real-time basis. Now NJDG is under trial and testing stage for making Supreme Court data available in public domain.

The decision for e-filing of cases and documents in the Courts is an administrative matter which falls strictly within the purview and domain of the Judiciary and Central Government has no direct role to play in the matter. However, Department of Justice has requested all Central & State Government Departments including the Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) to use eFiling in all commercial disputes coming up in the commercial courts. Further, instructions have been issued by eCommittee of the Supreme Court to all High Courts to ensure that all Government litigation should be e-filed. Department of Justice has requested Department of Legal Affairs (DoLA) to advise all Central Ministries/ Departments to use eFiling in all Government litigation. Accordingly, a communication has been sent by the Department of Legal Affairs to all Ministries/ Departments of the Government of India, as well as to all Law Officers for e-filing in respect of litigation on behalf of Union of India by the Ministries/ Departments concerned, including Autonomous Bodies/ Subordinate Offices/ Attached Offices and PSUs under their administrative control. To ensure a smooth process of e-filing of cases model rules for e-filing of cases have been prepared by Supreme Court of India and shared with the High Courts. Till now, 19 High Courts have implemented the rules of e-filing. Funds have been released to establish the e-Sewa Kendras to facilitate the lawyer or litigant who needs any kind of assistance ranging from information to facilitation and e-filing. As on 31.10.2022, 619 eSewa Kendras have been made functional under 25 High Courts.

NJDG works as a monitoring tool to identify, manage & reduce pendency of cases. It helps to provide timely inputs for making policy decisions to reduce delays in disposing of cases and helps in reducing case pendency. It also facilitates better monitoring of court performance and systemic bottlenecks, and, thus, serves as an efficient resource management tool. NJDG can be used for effective court management and case management for reducing the caseload.

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SS/RKM

(Release ID: 1884166)