Telangana HC Launches E-Services For Summons, Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System

This facility would obviate the Courts to access the data from the other stakeholders of ICJS project and the transmission will be done electronically which will bring more transparency and reduction of data entry at multiple places which will relieve the burden of Staff of Courts, Police and all other stakeholders, as well as saves money to the State exchequer.

  ICJS (Interoperable Criminal Justice System)

Inter-operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is an ambitious project, aimed at integrating the Crime and Criminals Tracking Network and Systems (CCTNS) with the e-Courts and e-Prisons databases, as well as with other pillars of the Criminal Justice System such as Forensics, Prosecution and Juvenile Homes, in a phased manner.

The interoperability among the stake holders of Interoperable Criminal Justice System i.e. Courts, Police, Prosecutors, Forensic experts and Prisons Department is aiming to reduce the multiple data entry and increased real time information exchange between the stakeholders for effective functioning. Web service has been developed by the NIC Team at Pune (Developer team) and NIC Team at Delhi, which is in-charge of ICJS Project for consuming the CCTNS Data (eFIR, eCharge sheet, etc., on submission of Physical copy to the Court by the Police Department) from the Police Department to the Courts concerned in the NC DC CIS 3.1 and similarly the receipt with the Case reference number is exchanged online to the Police Department. As a part of ICJS, the Project, on pilot basis, was started in the Subedari Police Station of Warangal Police Commissionerate and the testing has been successfully completed. On 15^th December, 2018 Hon'ble Sri Justice Madan B Lokur, Chairman of the Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) & Judge-In-Charge e-Committee, Supreme Court of India, launched the said Project in Warangal District through Video Conference for the first in the Country in Telangana, enabling live exchange of data between Courts and Police concerned. It is further submitted that on 16/09/2019, the Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court for the State of Telangana has inaugurated the ICJS (Interoperable Criminal Justice System) Project and NSTEP at Prl. District Court Complex, Karimnagar, through Video Conference.

https://icjs.gov.in/ICJS/

Interoperable Criminal Justice System aims to integrate CCTNS system with eCourt, ePrison, eForensics, eProsecution, Fingerprint, and Women & Child Department (WCD) systems for seamless flow of information among these pillars of Criminal Justice System to achieve "One Data Once Entry" .

The lack of transparency, absence of adequate investigation tools and delay in information flow among the pillars could also be reasons for delay in delivery of Justice. The proposed Interoperable Criminal Justice System is an attempt to make the justice delivery system speedy and transparent. The project also aims towards smart policing which include empowering citizen, investigating agencies and policy makers.

The ICJS portal serves as an interface for various pillars to perform National Level Searches based on Name, Relative Name, Mobile No, Email-Id, Unique Identifiers (like FIR No, CNR No., Prison ID etc.), Addresses and even on Contents (free text). It also provides customizable National Level Dashboard for Analytics on various metrics. The ICJS Interoperable services soon to be available shall provide a platform for various pillars to exchange information through uniform web-service APIs.

Key Features

• Integrated view of Information from various pillars of Indian Judicial System.

• Person Identity Resolution on the fly.

• Search facility for Authorized users only.

• Data ownership remains with stake holders.

• Secured data sharing.

National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP)

CIS (Case Information System) software is deployed across all Courts in India. CIS provides facility to generate electronic processes in PDF format. Once the electronic processes are generated, Process Administrator of the respective court will assign the delivery of processes to Bailiffs. There is also a mechanism available in CIS software for sending this electronic process to the concerned through email, when the email address is available in CIS software.

National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes (NSTEP)

1. Through the process of NSTEP, service of notice and summons is expedited and made electronically.
2. Inter-State service and inter-District service of notice is simplified and postal and other delays are obviated. Real time updates about service status would also reduce delay to great extent
3. Process Generation is done in CIS. The process needs to be published and once the process is published it cannot be edited.
4. Published process is fetched on NSTEP Portal.
5. Processes are allocated to Bailiffs and the allocations would immediately reflect on their mobile devices. Bailiffs will visit location, take photograph, obtain on screen signature, and his location would be captured by GPS coordinates and finally he uploads the service of report. The report is immediately reflected on the portal and pulled in CIS.
6. Initially the NSTEP is being utilized by the Nazarath Section through Web browser i.e. the Bailiffs are giving acknowledgment to the Nazarath Section which would be updating the NSTEP portal immediately for pulling the same into the CIS software.

This facility is proposed to be extended not only for Civil Cases but also to the Criminal Cases.