Kerala High Court Set To Inaugurate Various IT Initiatives On Monday

Kerala High Court will inaugurate various IT initiatives including the Vigilance Court Case Management System (VCMS) and the Family Court Case Management Module on April 10 at the High Court Auditorium. The court is also set to launch an Online RTI Portal.

While Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the Vigilance Court Case Management System, the Family Court Case Management Module and other IT initiatives will be inaugurated by Chief Justice S. Manikumar.

Advocate General K. Gopalakrishna Kurup will deliver the Keynote Address at the event. Deputy Solicitor General of India S. Manu; Vice President of Kerala High Court Advocates Association S. Biju; Chief Postmaster General Manju Prasannan Pillai; and Registrar (Computerization)-cum-Director (IT) of the Kerala High Court G. Gopakumar will also be present at the event. 

Vigilance Case Management System

A customized version of the CMS software used in the High Court has been developed by the High Level IT Team. The system will enable the public to access the status of cases. The system aims at bringing in more transparency in Vigilance Court cases and curbing various malpractices such as missing files, undated cases, and so on. Presently, the public cannot access Judgments and orders passed by the Vigilance courts. However, this system aims to changing the same, and equipping the public to access such documents. 

Much like the CMS adopted by the High Court, the VCMS also provides various features for management of vigilance cases from the stage of registration of the FIR till the disposal of the case. It provides for auto-generation of summons and other processes to the accused persons and other witnesses. Bail bonds and other forms and registers can also be updated automatically using the module.

The government has also sanctioned Rs. One crore for the digitalization of Vigilance Court records 

Family Court Case Management Module

The High Court National Informatics Centre (NIC) Unit has deployed a comprehensive module for the management of family court cases. The module ensures that a case management system is in place for judges and Chief Ministerial Officer (CMO). The module ensures that the cases allocated by CMO to counsellors and mediators are instantly available to them without any delay. There is a case scheduling calendar that is made available for CMO and counsellors/mediators which makes case scheduling easier. The outputs of the counselling/mediation are also instantly made available to the judges. 

The system also has a dashboard in place for High Court judges to monitor the case pendency in each Family Court, by which they would be able to set targets for each court to speed up the process.

Other IT Initiatives

The High Court is also formulating certain other IT initiatives as well which will also be inaugurated on Monday. 

i. Machine Delivery of Online Certified Copy 

An applicant can get a certified copy of a Court document. When the applicant logs in to the High Court website, the application will guide them to select the required document and provide a preview of the same. Upon confirmation, the payment can be made online, and the document would be delivered to the applicant in real time.

ii. e-Post 

This envisages a comprehensive program for the service of summons, notices and other documents of the High Court through digital mode. The Department of Posts had come up with this novel suggestion for integration of e-post and speed post services. As per the proposal, in the first phase of the project, 8 centres would be identified in Kerala which would be the Nodal Points to which the communications from the High Court of Kerala would be sent as e-post, and from there, these communications would be sent to all post offices of Kerala Circle which would be mapped to these 8 Nodal Points. The printed contents of the communications would then be delivered to the recipients on a D+1 Basis from there. 

iii. Application for Intra - Appeal/Revision

The High Court is developing an application for filing appeals with minimal number of documents, that would aid in simplifying and streamlining the appeal filing process, making it quicker and more efficient for lawyers and litigants. Through this system, e-filers can file an appeal within minutes, without having to scan their existing case bundle. The system would then automatically fetch the arising case and upload the documents into the case file, thereby saving valuable time and effort of both the e-filer as well as the Court. The technology is also hoped to reduce the errors in filing and processing thereby resulting in faster resolution of cases.

iv. Online RTI Portal 

This portal would help in automating the existing physical flow of handling RTI applications. E-payment facility is integrated from the user end, for making the payments online. 

v. IT Training Hall

Recognizing that timely technical/functional training for the High Court staff has become imperative in light of the various technical modernization initiatives undertaken by the court, a state-of-the-art IT Training Hall is sought to be established by the Court.

Steps for initiating the same had started during the FY 2021-2022, with an initial budget of 30L Rupees, and another 30L Rupees was sanctioned during the FY 2022-2023. The Training Hall aims at equipping the officials with the constantly changing technology. The IT Training Hall envisages state-of-the-art interactive displays, all-in-one PCs for the trainees, facility for Video Conferencing and digital conference systems.