E-governance initiatives are only as effective as their last-mile delivery. Analyse this in the context of e-Sewa Kendras under the e-Courts project.

Access to justice under Article 21 is hollow if a digitised judiciary is reachable only by the digitally equipped. e-Sewa Kendras — free facilitation counters in court complexes under the e-Courts Mission Mode Project — are precisely where this last-mile claim is tested.

Strong back-end, conditional front-end

• e-Courts has built formidable capacity: 4,519 courts e-filing enabled, over 4.18 crore remote hearings, and 83,000+ judgments translated into 18 Indian languages [1].
• Over 753 crore pages of records stand digitised [2]. Yet each gain presumes a device, bandwidth and digital literacy — so the interface, not the infrastructure, becomes the binding constraint for a rural or first-time litigant.

e-Sewa Kendras as the delivery instrument

• They act as a one-stop counter offering free case information, orders/judgments, e-filing and e-payment assistance, and video-conferencing support to those lacking technology access [3].
• 1,806 are operational [2], against a Phase-III saturation target of 4,400 across all court complexes, funded within the Rs. 7,210 crore outlay [4].
• They convert e-Courts from a self-service portal into an assisted-access service — the defining feature of genuine last-mile design [5].

Where the last mile still leaks

• Coverage gap: a large share of targeted complexes await saturation, leaving delivery uneven across states [4].
• Geography: Kendras sit at court complexes, so the litigant must still travel to the district headquarters; no panchayat-level presence exists.
• Capacity and awareness: outcomes depend on trained staff and litigant awareness — physical reach does not automatically translate into usage.

The e-Courts experience confirms that back-end digitisation is necessary but not sufficient; effectiveness is realised only at the counter where a litigant is actually served. Completing the 4,400-Kendra saturation, linking Kendras with Common Service Centres and Tele-Law, and publishing utilisation data would convert judicial ICT investment into substantive access to justice.