e-Courts project

Topic: Justice Delivery: Subordinate Courts, Tribunals, Legal Aid and Judicial Reforms · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

The e-Courts project is a national Mission Mode Project (a priority e-governance project run with fixed goals and phases). It brings computers and the internet into India's courts, mainly the district and subordinate courts. The Department of Justice runs it together with the e-Committee of the Supreme Court [1].

It matters because about 87% of India's pending cases are in district and subordinate courts [2]. Going digital is one of the main ways the state is trying to cut delay and make courts easier to reach and more open to the public.

Explanation

Origin and who does what

• 2005: the e-Committee of the Supreme Court released the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of ICT in the Indian Judiciary. ICT means information and communication technology, such as computers, networks and software.
• Two bodies share the work:
• The e-Committee (Supreme Court) sets the policy. It is the judiciary's side.
• The Department of Justice (Ministry of Law and Justice) carries out the project and funds it. It is the government's side.

The three phases

Phase	Period	Main focus	Key outputs
Phase I	2007 onwards	Computerisation	Computers, LAN (a local network inside the court) and basic case software in court complexes
Phase II	2015-2023	Citizen services	Case Information System (CIS) software; National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG); e-filing (filing cases online) and e-payment (paying court fees online); virtual courts for traffic challans; video-conference (VC) hearings, used much more during COVID-19
Phase III	2023-2027	"Digital, online and paperless courts"	₹7,210 crore; all court records digitised, including old ones; cloud storage; paperless courts; AI and OCR tools (OCR turns scanned pages into searchable text); online dispute resolution; an e-Sewa Kendra in every court complex; more virtual courts

• Phase II results:
• VC links: video conferencing connected 493 court complexes with 347 jails. Undertrials (people in jail whose trial has not finished) could appear in court without being moved [4].
• VC hearings: up to 31 May 2024, district and subordinate courts heard 2,33,67,497 cases by video and High Courts heard 86,35,710. That is about 3.20 crore in all [4].

• Training: over 14,000 judicial officers were trained on Ubuntu-Linux. Over 3,900 court staff were trained as CIS administrators.

• Phase III approval:

• The Union Cabinet approved it on 13 September 2023 [1].
• It is a Central Sector Scheme, which means the Centre pays the full cost. It runs for four years from 2023, with ₹7,210 crore [1].
• Its stated goal is "maximum ease of justice" [1].

Main parts

• National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG):
• An online database of pending and decided cases for each court. It is updated in close to real time, and anyone can check it.
• It was built under Phase II.

• The Supreme Court joined in September 2023. Before that, the grid covered only High Courts and district courts.

• Virtual courts:

• These are online courts. Neither the litigant (a party to the case) nor the lawyer has to come to court. A judge decides the case on a digital platform. They handle petty matters such as traffic challans [3].
• August 2024: they were working in 21 States/UTs and had handled over 6 crore cases. In over 62 lakh cases, online fines worth ₹649.81 crore were collected [3].

• Effect: small cases leave the regular courts, so judges have more time for serious matters.

• e-Sewa Kendras:

• A help desk inside the court complex. It helps lawyers and litigants with e-filing, case status, e-payment and paying traffic fines online.

• August 2024: there were 1,394 in district courts and 36 in High Courts. They serve people in remote areas and people who cannot afford the technology [5].

• Supreme Court AI tools:

• SUVAS (Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software), 2019: translates judgments from English into Indian languages.
• SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Court's Efficiency), 2021: helps judges with legal research and with reading case files. It helps judges but does not decide cases.

Limits and risks

• Digital divide:
• Many village litigants and lawyers have no internet, no smartphone or no digital skills.

• An online-only system can shut them out. e-Sewa Kendras are the main fix.

• Data quality: the NJDG is only as accurate as the data courts enter. Wrong entries and outdated case status make the figures less reliable.

• Privacy:
• Court records hold personal data about victims, children and parties.

• Cloud storage and AI raise concerns about data protection and surveillance.

• Over-reliance on AI: mistakes or bias in AI tools could make outcomes unfair. Human judges must stay in control.

In the Constitution and practice

• No article creates e-Courts. It is an executive scheme, not a law. Its purpose comes from these constitutional rights and structures:
• Art. 21 (right to life and personal liberty): in Hussainara Khatoon v. Home Secretary, State of Bihar (1979), the Supreme Court held that a speedy trial is part of Art. 21. Faster, digital courts serve this right.
• Art. 39A (equal justice and free legal aid, added by the 42nd Amendment, 1976): e-Sewa Kendras and online services help poor and remote litigants reach the courts.
• Arts. 233-235: district and subordinate courts are where most citizens first meet the justice system. Under Art. 235, the High Court controls them, so High Courts are central to carrying out e-Courts on the ground.

• Right to privacy: this is part of Art. 21 (K.S. Puttaswamy v. Union of India, 2017). It limits how court data stored in the cloud and AI tools may be used.

• Why it is needed:

• More than 5 crore cases are pending.

• On 31 December 2025, district and subordinate courts had 4,43,45,599 pending cases and High Courts had 63,70,904 [2].

• How it has worked in practice:

• About 3.20 crore VC hearings had taken place by 31 May 2024 [4].
• Over 6 crore traffic cases had gone through virtual courts by August 2024 [3].
• Pendency became open public data through the NJDG.

• Video conferencing was used much more during COVID-19 and kept courts running.

• Link with the new criminal laws (from 1 July 2024): the BNSS, 2023 sets time limits. For example, a judgment should come within 30 days of arguments ending, extendable to 45 days. Digital case tracking helps courts meet such deadlines.

Don't confuse with

• Centrally Sponsored Scheme for judicial infrastructure (since 1993-94): that scheme pays for court buildings and judges' homes, and the Centre and states share the cost. e-Courts Phase III is a Central Sector Scheme, so the Centre pays all of it.
• National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG): this is one output of e-Courts, built in Phase II. It is not the whole project. It shows case data, while e-Courts is the full digitisation programme.
• Virtual court vs VC hearing: in a virtual court, a judge decides petty cases such as traffic challans fully online, and nobody appears. In a VC hearing, a normal case is heard by video, for example an undertrial appearing from jail.
• e-Committee vs Department of Justice: the e-Committee of the Supreme Court drafted the 2005 policy. The Department of Justice carries out the project.

Prelims Hooks

• Phase III: approved by the Union Cabinet on 13 September 2023. It is a Central Sector Scheme with ₹7,210 crore for four years [1]. Trap: the judicial infrastructure scheme (since 1993-94) is the Centrally Sponsored one.
• Phases: Phase I (2007 onwards) brought computers. Phase II (2015-2023) brought the NJDG, e-filing, e-payment and virtual courts. Phase III (2023-2027) aims at "digital, online and paperless courts".
• NJDG: built under Phase II. The Supreme Court joined in September 2023. Before that, it covered only High Courts and district courts.
• Policy vs implementation: the e-Committee of the Supreme Court released the 2005 National Policy and Action Plan for ICT in the judiciary. The Department of Justice carries out the project.
• AI tools: SUVAS (2019) translates judgments. SUPACE (2021) helps judges with research. Do not swap them.
• Virtual courts (August 2024): working in 21 States/UTs, with over 6 crore cases handled and ₹649.81 crore in fines collected [3].

Mains Points

• e-Courts as a tool against pendency:
• About 87% of the backlog is in district courts [2], and that is the level e-Courts mainly targets.
• Virtual courts take petty cases off the regular courts' list. VC hearings let undertrials appear from jail [4]. The NJDG makes delays visible to everyone.

• Limit: technology cannot replace judges. Vacancies, adjournments and the government's habit of filing routine appeals still need separate reforms.

• Access vs exclusion:

• Gains: over 6 crore traffic cases went through virtual courts [3], about 3.2 crore cases were heard by VC [4], and court data is now public.
• Costs: the digital divide, unreliable data, and privacy risks after Puttaswamy (2017).

• Balance: an e-Sewa Kendra in every court complex [5], a data-protection framework for court records, and AI that only assists human judges.

• Federalism and coordination:

• Phase III is fully funded by the Centre [1]. But subordinate courts are staffed by the states and controlled by the High Courts (Arts. 233-235).
• This split can leave gaps in carrying out the project. A permanent judiciary-led body, such as the proposed National Judicial Infrastructure Authority (2021), could link digital and physical court infrastructure.

Related concepts

• Judicial pendency
• National Judicial Data Grid
• Judge-population ratio
• Virtual courts
• Justice delayed is justice denied

Read more

• Pendency, judicial capacity and the e-Courts project