The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Computer networking of district courts on course

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 18, 2005

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Computer networking of district courts on course

Sangeeth Kurian

Networking will enable litigants and lawyers to keep track of cases To help litigants and lawyers keep track of cases

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A computerisation drive that aims at minimising the hardship of litigants and lawyers by reducing the procedural delay in courts is currently under way at the district courts in the city.

The project, which involves the networking of court complexes at Vanchiyoor, Nedumangad and Neyyattinkara using computers, will help the litigants and lawyers to keep track of cases right from the filing date to their disposal.

Under the new system, once a petition is filed, the litigant or the lawyer will receive a receipt with details such as the serial number of the petition, parties involved and to which court the petition has been posted.

They will also have access to information relating to pending cases, judgments, notices and cause lists (list of petitions coming up before a court) through a `facilitation centre,' a room with computer facilities that would be set up in each court complex. The judgments available on the computer will be certified using a state-of-the-art digital signature, a secret code, assigned to the judicial officers. This will eliminate the delay in issuing certified copies to the litigants.

There will also be an interactive voice response system that will assist the litigants to find out the status of their petitions by making a phone call. The Rs.80-lakh project, implemented by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), is part of an ongoing computerisation drive in district courts carried out by the Ministry of Law and Justice across 29 States in the country.

The work, which began in November 2004, is expected to be completed by the end of this month. "Going by the progress we have made, Thiruvananthapuram will be the first to complete the task," said Neha Waiker, district informatics officer, NIC.

Optic fibre cables

At Vanchiyoor, the computers will be connected through optic fibre cables. "There will be one computer with a printer in each court room. All routine court notices will be generated automatically from the computer as it will have the details and formats of various notices," said Ms. Waiker.

According to advocates, the networking will usher in transparency and assist in faster disposal of complaints. "There will not be any confusion on whether a petition has been filed by an advocate as the litigants would be able to cross-check the information," said Dani J. Paul, an advocate.

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