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Supreme Court Launches New E-Committee Website

Justice DY Chandrachud launched a new website for the Supreme Court's e-committee.

The Supreme Court stands in New Delhi, India. (Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg)
The Supreme Court stands in New Delhi, India. (Photographer: T. Narayan/Bloomberg)

Justice DY Chandrachud launched a new website for the Supreme Court's e-committee that aims to provide citizens with easier access to information about the online initiatives taken by courts across the country.

Justice Chandrachud, the chairman of the e-committee, launched the website via an online event, and termed the panel as the arm of the apex court under its e-courts project, at the command of every citizen.

The website is based on free and open-source software in accordance with the policy of the Government of India, and that would minimise costs and promote transparency, PTI quoted him as saying.

The website was launched in the presence of its members, Justice Chandrachud’s predecessors Justice (retd) M B Lokur, Attorney General KK Venugopal and various judges of high courts across the country.

“We are going to make this scalable and reach out to citizens in the languages they understand so the idea is to demystify the operations of the court system and e-committee. This is a highly accessible website,” Justice Chandrachud said.

Though launched in English, Justice Chandrachud said "we must be conscious of the fact that English is not the language of the masses".

“The idea was to allow high courts to upload on the website the work they are doing in their courts to inform the nation. The judges must share and learn from each other's experience and also inform the nation of the steps taken by the high courts and this is all a part of this citizen-centric project,” he said.

This data would be available not just to hands of the litigants but also at the hands of the chief justices for management of litigation, he said.

The website has also integrated other features such as e-payment and e-services.

"Criticism has an element of curiosity but let's also talk about the positive side. District courts disposed of 12.69 lakh cases during the lockdown by way of video-conferencing," Justice Chandrachud said. "Supreme Court led the way. Judiciary is very often criticised but for a change, let's talk about positives of the judiciary."

Over 50,000 lawyers have been able to access the services of the Supreme Court during the lockdown, while the mobile application has over 40 lakh downloads, he said.

“One of our initiatives today is the inter-operable criminal justice system and as part of the Interoperable Criminal Justice System, a joint project of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Department of Justice and Supreme Court, we are integrating every element of criminal justice administration, namely prisons, police, courts and forensic labs,” Justice Chandrachud said.

According to the vice chairperson of the Supreme Court’s e-committee, Justice RC Chavan, the endeavor is made mainly for the common man who earlier had no means of knowing the activities of the e-committee.

“This gave birth to the idea of having a website where not only will the information be provided but will open a channel for exchange of ideas,” he said.

(With inputs from PTI)