Supreme Court To Be On National Judicial Data Grid Shortly : Justice DY Chandrachud

"We have already got now a module of Supreme Court Judicial Data Grid, that is all ready and I was looking at it over the weekend and very shortly there will also be a link on National Judicial Data Grid so that Supreme Court will also be on National Judicial Data Grid," Justice DY Chandrachud told Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh while considering a matter in which the Court had taken up the issue of delay in tax litigation.

National Judicial Data Grid has the statistics relating to pendency and arrears in the courts across India. At present, it reflects the data from the trial courts and certain High Courts.

What Transpired In The Supreme Court Today?

The bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant was considering a civil appeal filed by the Central Excise department in which it had earlier took up the issue relating to the delay in filing of tax appeals. The Court had earlier suggested a monitoring mechanism to track revenue litigaiton by integrating the data with the e-courts system.

When the matter was called for hearing, ASG Balbir Singh referred to the Top Court's order dated March 7, 2022 wherein the Top Court had asked the Union to consider constituting a committee at the Secretary level to take stock of the progress which has been made on the ground. He then submitted that a High Powered Committee had been constituted and the meeting of the same has been fixed for April 1, 2022 to take stock of the situation.

The bench at this juncture by pointing out to the integration with the LIMBS portal and the Statistics which the court had asked the Union to furnish said, "Your statistics show that your delay is still continuing."

Responding to the remarks posed by the bench, ASG submitted that all these appeals were arising out of CESTAT. He further submitted that there was a delay since CESTAT was still functioning on LAN and had not been put on cloud as a result of which LIMBS integration had not taken place.

"These are all 75 appeals arising out of CESTAT out of which 49 there is delay and 26 is relaxed period. CESTAT is still functioning on LAN and has not been put on cloud and that's why LIMB's integration has not taken place. This is being raised with the President of CESTAT and the process is on. We are hopeful that within 4 weeks CESTAT will also be on cloud and delay in future will be taken care of," submitted ASG.

Referring to the order dated November 29, 2021, the ASG submitted that there were 2 impediments and if they could be resolved the process would become more efficient in the entire system.

Pointing to the note related to "Reducing Delays In Litigation Management" wherein it was mentioned that certain High Court's were not on NJDG, thr ASG said

"The HC's like Delhi and Andhra Pradesh are still not on the grid. If remaining HC's are connected with the judicial grid, if the remaining HC's could be connected with LIMBS, possibly those orders can be immediately reflected in the HC's data to LIMBs and this could be one way to achieve efficiency. The interface of the Supreme Court is yet to happen. If that also could be taken care of, possibly.."

"We have already got now a module of Supreme Court Judicial Data Grid, that is all ready and I was looking at it over the weekend and very shortly there will also be a link on National Judicial Data Grid so that Supreme Court will also be on National Judicial Data Grid," remarked Justice DY Chandrachud.

The bench accordingly in their order while taking note of ASG's submissions directed President, CESTAT to personally intervene in the matter and to ensure that all necessary steps are taken in the back office of CESTAT so that the integration of LIMBS software is completed within a period of 1 month at the latest.

"Pursuance of the order dated Nov 29, 2021 further note has been filed by Mr Balbir Singh ASG. The note besides referring to the statistics which were required to be disclosed are set out in para 5 which read as follows.

Integration of CESTAT with the LIMBS portal is also in progress and ASG states that CESTAT is presently operating on LAN and in a short period it is anticipated that it will migrate to cloud based storage so as to facilitate integration with LIMBS portal.. The President, CESTAT is requested to personally intervene in the matter and to ensure that all necessary steps are taken in the back office of CESTAT so that the integration of LIMBS software is completed within a period of 1 month at the latest.

Besides the above, the Court has been apprised of the fact that on March 7, 2022 High Powered Committee has been constituted to monitor the progress of implementation of IT Based management of CBIC and CBDT. The committee consists of the following person and the meeting of the committee is on April 1, 2022.

An updated status report will be filed in the meantime and the report should be fulfilled by the next date so that integration can take place in all respects," the bench said in its order.

"At Least something is happening now," remarked Justice Chandrachud pursuant to pronouncing the order.

"A lot has happened looking at the varied filings. Delay used to be there," responded ASG.

Case Title: C.C.E. And S.T., Surat I V. Bilfinder Neo Structo Construction Ltd.| C.A. No. 674/2021

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