The eCourts Mission Mode Project is under implementation for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development of the Indian Judiciary. The Department of Justice, Government of India is implementing eCourts Project in close coordination with the eCommittee of Supreme Court of India, in a decentralized manner through the respective High Courts.

Phase I of the project was implemented during 2011-2015 and focused on the basics of computerisation like setting up computer hardware, ensuring internet connectivity, and operationalizing the e-Courts platform. Against an outlay of Rs. 935 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs. 639.41 crore for implementation of this phase. The following initiatives were undertaken in this phase:

1. 14,249 District and Subordinate courts were computerized.
2. LAN was installed at 13,683 courts, hardware provided in 13,436 courts and software was installed in 13,672 courts.
3. Laptops were provided to 14,309 judicial officers and change management exercise completed in all High Courts.
4. Over 14,000 Judicial Officers were trained in the use of UBUNTU-Linux Operating System.
5. More than 3900 court staff were trained in Case Information System (CIS) as System Administrators.
6. Video Conferencing facility was operationalised between 493 court complexes & 347 corresponding jails.

Phase II of the eCourts Mission Mode Project (2015-2023), focused on ICT enablement of District & Subordinate Courts and various citizen centric initiatives. Against an outlay of Rs.1670 crore, total expenditure incurred was Rs. 1668.43 crore for implementation of this phase. Till 2023, digital infrastructure has been provided to 18,735 courts.

The following e-initiatives have been undertaken by the Government under eCourts Project to make justice accessible and available for all: -

1. Under the Wide Area Network (WAN) Project, connectivity has been provided to 99.5% of total Court Complexes across India with 10 Mbps to 100 Mbps bandwidth speed.The Wide Area Network (WAN) Project under eCourts project is aimed at connecting all District and Subordinate court complexes, spread across the country using various technologies like Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), Optical Fibre Cable (OFC), Radio Frequency (RF), Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT), Submarine Cable etc. This forms the backbone for the eCourts project ensuring data connectivity in courts across the length and breadth of the country.At present, connectivity to 209 new court complexes is being provided by BSNL using Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) Technology.
2. National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a database of orders, judgments, and cases, created as an online platform under the eCourts Project. It provides information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of all computerized district and subordinate courts of the country. Litigants can access case information and more than 27.64 crore orders / judgments (as on date).
3. Case Information Software (CIS) based on customized Free and Open- Source Software (FOSS) has been developed. Currently CIS National Core Version 3.2 is being implemented in District Courts and the CIS National Core Version 1.0 is being implemented for the High Courts.
4. As part of eCourts project, 7 platforms have been created to provide real time information on case status, cause lists, judgements etc. to lawyers/Litigants through SMS Push and Pull (Over 4 lakhs SMS sent daily), Email (Over 6 lakhs sent daily), multilingual eCourts services Portal (35 lakh hits daily), JSC (Judicial Service centres) and Info Kiosks. In addition, Electronic Case Management Tools (ECMT) have been created with Mobile App for lawyers (total 2.69 crore downloads till 31.10.2024) and JustIS app for judges (20,719 downloads till 31.10.2024).
5. India has emerged as a global leader in conducting court hearing through Video Conferencing. The District & Subordinate courts heard 2,48,21,789 cases while the High Courts heard 90,21,629 cases (totalling 3.38 crore) till 31.10.2024 using video conferencing system. The Supreme Court of India held 7,54,443 hearings from 23.03.2020 to 04.06.2024 through video conferencing. VC facilities have also been enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails.
6. Live Streaming of court proceedings has been started in the High Courts of Gujarat, Gauhati, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Calcutta & the Supreme Court of India, thus allowing media and other interested persons to join the proceedings.
7. Virtual Courts in 21 States/UTs have been operationalized to handle traffic challan cases. Over 6 crore cases (6,00,29,546) have been handled by these virtual courts and in more than 62 lakhs (62,97,544) cases, online fine of more than Rs. 649.81 crores have been realized till 31.10.2024.
8. e-filing system (version 3.0) has been rolled out with upgraded features for lawyers to access and upload documents related to the cases from any location 24X7.
9. e-Filing of cases requires the option for electronic payment of fees which includes court fees, fines and penalties which are directly payable to the Consolidated Fund. Therefore e-Payment system was launched for hassle free transfer of fee etc.
10. To bridge the digital divide, 1394 eSewa Kendras (Facilitation Centres) in District Courts and 36 eSewa Kendras (Facilitation Centres) in High Courts have been rolled out to provide citizen centric services to lawyers and litigants. It also assists the litigants in accessing online e-Courts services and acts as a saviour for those who cannot afford the technology or are located in far-flung areas. It also aids to addresses the challenges caused by illiteracy among citizens at large. These also provide benefits in saving time, avoidance of exertion, travelling long distances, and saving cost by offering facilities of e- filing of cases across the country, to conduct the hearing virtually, scanning, accessing e-Courts services etc.
11. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) has been launched for technology enabled process serving and issuing of summons. It has currently been implemented in 28 States/ UTs.
12. A new “Judgment Search” portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name, Judge Name, Act, Section, Decision: From Date, To Date and Full Text Search. This facility is being provided free of cost to all.
13. As a part of the project, 605 trainings and awareness programmes on the ICT services provided under the eCourts project has been conducted from May 2020 to October 2024 covering nearly 6,64,144 stakeholders, including High Court Judges, Judges of the District Judiciary, Court Staff, Master Trainers among Judges/DSA, Technical Staff of High Courts, and Advocates.

eCourts Phase III (2023-2027) has been approved by the Union Cabinet in Sep’2023 at an outlay of ₹7,210 crore, which is over four times the funding for Phase II. The project envisages various new digital initiatives such as establishment of Digital and Paperless Courts that aim to bring court proceedings under a digital format, digitization of court records (both legacy records and pending cases), expansion of video conferencing facilities to courts, jails and hospitals, scope of online courts beyond adjudication of traffic violations, saturation of all court complexes with eSewa kendras, state of the art and latest Cloud based data repository for easy retrieval and supporting the digitized court records, software applications, live streaming, and electronic evidence etc., use of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence and its subsets like Optical Character Recognition (OCR) etc. for analysis of case pendency, forecasting future litigation, etc. Thus, the efforts of the Government of integrating technology with the governance may prove to be a game changer in eCourts Phase III, ensuring ease of justice by making the Court experience convenient, inexpensive and hassle free to all the citizens of the country.

This information was given by the Minister of State (Independent Charge) of the Ministry of Law & Justice, and Minister of State in the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal in a written reply in Rajya Sabha today.

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