The Hindu : New Delhi News : Create e-governance grid: Kalam

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Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007
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New Delhi

Create e-governance grid: Kalam

Legal Correspondent

For seamless flow of information and case objects

NEW DELHI: President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Monday suggested creation of e-judiciary by establishing “Judicial e-Governance Grid” from the district courts to the Apex Court for covering the whole judicial system in the country.

The Supreme Court has undertaken the “e-courts” efforts in three phases as a mission mode project under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGEP) for linking about 15,000 courts in the country. It is planned to provide necessary infrastructure and concentrate on capacity building, judicial process from filing to execution and finally making the information available online between the courts, prosecuting and investigating agencies, prisons, land records and registration offices thereby accelerating disposal of civil and criminal cases.

Inaugurating the national e-courts project organised by the Supreme Court, Mr. Kalam said, “the Grid will ensure seamless flow of information and case objects across the inter-departmental barrier in a G2G mode across the vertical grid. This will be supported by the other horizontal e-Governance grid from the State and Central Government related to the particular case object which will facilitate the case objects to flow across the judicial process at various stages ensuring the speed, transparency and inter-operability thereby eliminating duplicity and ensuring speedy justice.”

He said, “Computerisation of the High Courts and the District Courts is essential for the development of e-judiciary system. From the time the case is filed till it is disposed of with judgment, the entire processing must take place electronically. This will enable easy search, retrieval, grouping, information processing, judicial record processing and disposal of the cases. The proposed action for connecting all the 15,000 courts from the District Court to the Supreme Court through a Wide Area Network will further enhance the efficiency of the judicial system. The e-Judiciary initiative within the overall justice delivery system should help in transforming the Court service into a better focused system in meeting the needs of the citizens in a transparent manner and enable quicker disposal of cases.”

The Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan explained the initiatives taken by the apex court towards establishment of e-courts in the country. Union Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj was among those who spoke.

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