1.78 Crore Cases Disposed Of By Virtual Courts, 19.2 Million Cases Heard By HCs & District Courts Through VC: Justice D.Y. Chandrachud

While delivering the Vote of Thanks in the inaugural function of the 1st All India District Legal Services Authorities Meet, Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, judge of the Supreme Court, highlighted the impact of technology on furthering access to justice to citizens of India. While accentuating upon the technological advancements undertaken by the judiciary, Justice Chandrachud stated that–

"During this year up to 28 July 2022, our eTaal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer) website has recorded 250 crores e-transactions. Up to 30 April 2022, 5.46 crore automated emails have been sent to citizens. 35 lakh hits are recorded daily on the e-court service mobile application. 19.2 million cases were heard on video conferences by the High Courts and the District Courts as of 30 April 2022. 1.78 crore cases have been disposed off by virtual courts. The national judicial data grid has data of 17 crore decided and pending cases."

He stated that NALSA, which he referred to as "an ambitious project with constitutional reach which uses the bottoms up approach to ensure that access to justice penetrates through the rivers mountains and deserts of our beautiful landscape" was similar to the e-committee of the Supreme Court as both of these used technology to enhance the outreach of its services. In his address, he highlighted that the e-committee had established e-Seva Kendras in 26 high courts and 500 district courts to enable litigants to obtain information on the case status, extend assistance in e-filing of cases and to avail the full range of services provided by the e-courts project. Similarly, Justice Chandrachud stated that NALSA provided mediation services and legal aid management portal which helped individuals secure access to information. Thus, he stated that NALSA and the e-committee together possessed the ability to taper the digital divide by widening the reach of technology.

While deliberating upon the role of technology in access of justice, Justice Chandrachud stated that while technology did not have a human face, when deployed with human understanding, it had the potential to realise access to justice. He called for appropriate technologies to be developed locally and in close consultation with the beneficiaries to optimise the benefits of the services provided. However, he stated that technology must not be used to substitute the labour of humankind, rather, it must be employed to enhance the work of humans.

While highlighting the challenge faced by judicial administrators in this regard, he stated that the main obstacle was to maximise the outreach of legal services by integrating technology with a human face. He also highlighted that Common Services Centre in every gram Panchayat were being set up under the auspices of the Digital India initiative of the Union government and that the integration of e-court services with Common Service Centres would ensure that the reach of the Indian judiciary extends to every citizen in every village across India.

While delivering the vote of thanks, Justice Chandrachud commended the remarkable effort of the district level and grassroots stakeholders who have strived long and toiled hard to enable the access to justice in the remote regions of India. He stated that–

"In a nation as vast as ours where great inequality still persists, justice ought not to be limited to the socio-economically privileged sections of our society. It is the duty of state actors to secure a just and egalitarian social order in which the legal system promotes justice and ensures that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any segment of the society due to social and economic disability."

Finally, Justice Chandrachud thanked the stakeholders, the Prime Minister for sharing his vision for the future, the Chief Justice of India for being "the pillar of support behind every initiative of the Supreme court including NALSA and the e-committee", Justice U.U. Lalit for his invaluable drive to secure access to justice that has "propelled the rights framework in a true direction", the Union Minister of Law and Justice for supporting the endeavours of the Supreme Court and the members of NALSA, SLSA, DLSA and TLSC without whose contribution, he stated "the idea of access to justice would have remained buried in the pages of law and statutes". 

While concluding his address he stated that in the judicial System the members of legal service authorities were truly the frontline workers.

Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and Justice UU Lalit, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju also spoke during the event.

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