The Department of Justice has been implementing the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for Development of Infrastructure Facilities for the Judiciary since 1993-94 to augment the resources of the State Governments in a prescribed fund sharing pattern. There are five components under the Scheme namely court halls, residential quarters, lawyers’ halls, digital computer rooms and toilet complexes.

A sum of Rs. 12,101.89 crore has been released under the Scheme since its inception, out of which Rs. 8,657.59 crore (71.54%) has been released since 2014-15. From 15,818 court halls and 10,211 residential units in the year 2014, the numbers of available court halls and residential units have increased to 22372 (41.43% increase) and 19,851 (94.40% increase) respectively.

Financial assistance amounting to Rs 1,099.83 crore has been extended to the State of Maharashtra under the Scheme since inception.  Out of this amount, Rs. 700.17 crore (63.67%) have been released since 2014-15. A sum of Rs. 28.06 crore has been earmarked to the State of Maharashtra for the current financial year. At present, 2503 court halls and 2202 residential units are available in the State of Maharashtra. In addition, 560 court halls and 144 residential units are under construction.

The e-Courts project is being implemented as integrated Mission Mode Project since 2007 for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development of the Indian Judiciary as part of the National e-Governance Plan. Phase III of the e-Courts Project (for the period from 2023 to 2027) was approved in September 2023 with an outlay of ₹7,210 crore. Under Phase-III, several steps have been taken to improve the court management processes and digitize the services for the various stakeholders including lawyers, litigants and judges.

One of the components of eCourts Project Phase III is the scanning, digitization and digital preservation of case records, for which an amount of Rs. 2038.40 crore has been earmarked. As per information provided by the eCommittee, Supreme Court of India, 213.29 crore pages in the High Courts and 307.89 crore pages in the District Courts have been digitized till 30.06.2025. A software has been developed for preservation of judicial records of High Courts and District Courts. Further, Digital Courts 2.1 software has been developed for aiding courts to function in paperless mode.

The 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. In addition, the e-Payment system has been launched for hassle free transfer of fee etc. National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP) is significant step towards technology enabled process serving and issuing of summons. Besides, a Judgment Search portal has been started with features such as search by Bench, Case Type, Case Number, Year, Petitioner/ Respondent Name etc.  This facility is being provided free of cost to all. In order to facilitate easy and hassle-free access to citizen-centric services, 1814 eSewa Kendras (Facilitation Centres) have been established across the country. In addition, 29 Virtual Courts are functioning across 21 States/UTs for trying traffic related offences.

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

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Samrat/Allen

(Release ID: 2151247)