Allahabad High Court Inaugurates Virtual Traffic Court, Interoperable Criminal Justice System & Integrated Civil Court Data With Land Records

As per a press note issued in this regard, the Virtual Court deals digitally with "on-spot traffic challans" generated by the Traffic Police.

The digital challans captured for the given day will reflect in the dashboard of the Virtual Court Judge who shall issue special summons to the violator via her/ his mobile phone, under the Motor Vehicles Act.

Once a violator receives intimation on her/his mobile phone, she/he would have the option to either contest the summons or pay by visiting the web portal "https://vcourts.gov.in". She/he will pay the requisite fine through online mode on the day and the time of her/his choosing within the stipulated period. Upon payment of the fine, an acknowledgement will be generated showing the disposal of challan and the transaction number

The e-inauguration ceremony was attended by Justice Govind Mathur, Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court; Justice SP Kesarwani, Chairman of Computerization Committee; and other member Judges of the Computerization Committee including Justices Yashwant Varma, Vivek Chaudhary, Saumitra Dayal Singh, Jayant Banerji and Chandra Dhari Singh.

The Registrar General of the High Court; Principal Secretary for Law, Govt. of UP; Officials of Technical Service Department, Officials from the Traffic Department and other officials of the State Traffic Department were also present.

During the ceremony, Chief Justice Govind Mathur congratulated the Computerization Committee for providing new modes to access justice in this critical time.

Terming Virtual Courts as a blessing in disguise, Justice Mathur said,

"This pandemic period has given new horizons from the use of technology in access to justice…nowadays where we are burdened with huge number of cases, it is only the use of technology that can be used to get rid from this borderline to impart justice effectively."

Justice Yashwant Varma remarked that the pandemic is a completely new reality, compelling us to find new ways of providing access to justice. He opined that we are now living in a time where we have a completely new field of Design Thinking, which aims at making judicial services more about people and less about processes.

The High Court has also inaugurated an Interoperable Criminal Justice System and has integrated Civil Court Data with Land/ Property Records (Bhulekh).

ICJS has been introduced to facilitate speedy justice through data-exchange between the courts, police/prosecution, jails and the forensic labs.

It aims to integrate the CCTNS project with the e-courts and e-prisons databases in the first instance and with the other pillars of the criminal justice system - Forensics, Prosecution, Juvenile homes and a nationwide Fingerprint data base of criminals in a phased manner.

This will facilitate all the District Courts in getting the FIR, Chargesheet data in CIS (Case Information System) software. This will ensure accuracy of data in Case record that is consumed through FIR and Chargesheet on ICJS.