'Setting up our own cloud software...': CJI says huge budget for e-courts to provide technological boost

Senior advocate Dave said if this technological boost can be carried to the lower courts it will be a great contribution. The Chief Justice said some state governments are very supportive. -- Reports ETV Bharat's Sumit Saxena.

New Delhi:Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud Thursday said that during the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the high courts had no funds to purchase the license necessary for a video conferencing platform, however now huge budget has been allotted for the third phase of the e-courts project, which will equip judiciary with technology, especially the lower courts.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud and comprising justices S K Kaul, Sanjiv Khanna, B R Gavai, and Surya Kant, is hearing a batch of petitions challenging the abrogation of Article 370, which bestowed special status on the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Senior advocate, representing one of the petitioners’, opened the argument today before the court and appreciated that the bench has become tech-savvy. Dave said if this technological boost can be carried to the lower courts it will be a great contribution. The Chief Justice said some state governments are very supportive and others are, “I remember at the time of the pandemic, I won’t name the high court they did not have money to pay for licences for video platform…we just withdrew some licences from the Supreme Court and transferred to them…they were absolutely in dire strait that time there was a lockdown ”. The Chief Justice said, “It was not possible to run the court without video conferencing”.

The Chief Justice said, “In phase 3, we have a huge budget…we are in the process of doing that (making lower court technology friendly). Setting up our own cloud software for video conferencing......”

On August 15, in his Independence Day address at a Supreme Court Bar Association function, the Chief Justice said “We are implementing the phase 3 of the e-courts project, which has received budgetary sanction for Rs 7000 crore…It seeks to revolutionize by interlinking all courts throughout the country, setting up the infrastructure of paperless courts, digitization of court records, setting up of advanced e-seva kendras." The Union Budget, in February, had announced the launch of phase three of the e-courts project with an outlay of Rs 7,000 crore.