[eCourts- Phase III] SC eCommittee Proposes Live-Streaming And Sharing Of Digital Transcript Of Court Proceedings Immediately With The Order

"Live streaming or sharing recorded court proceedings can enable courts to become more open. Similarly leveraging technology to enable transcriptions of court proceedings can enable courts to realise their full potential to become 'courts of record'," the Committee said.

It has released draft proposal for Phase III of the project, which emphasizes on creation of digital infrastructure and availability of critical services to litigants and lawyers. Suggestions and inputs on the draft may be sent to the e-Committee email id within 2 weeks.

Supreme Court's e-Committee Calls For Suggestions And Inputs On Draft Vision Document For 3rd Phase Of Its e-Courts Project

Highlights of the draft proposal are as follows:

Transcriptions

Digital transcriptions are a precise record of what was said in court.

It shall provide lawyers and litigants with technologically enabled transcriptions of court proceedings from audio or spoken format into a typed digital format immediately with the order.

As per the e-Committee, this service will help lawyers and litigants plan their trial plans or appeals, understand the decision, use the transcription as evidence or share with litigants who were not present.

It will also enable lawyers and litigants to quickly store, search for, and locate the information they need and increase access to court proceedings for differently abled persons. In addition, transcriptions may serve as a reference point for judicial officers, particularly in relation to suggestions of out-of-court settlements by parties seeking adjournments.

Live streaming

The e-Committee recognizes that Open Digital Hearings/ Live streaming of court proceedings is key to increasing access to justice, apart from minimising travel costs of litigants and lawyers, and reducing environmental costs.

As per the draft proposal, different forms of digitally enabled hearings must be explored for diverse use cases. The Courts may explore possibilities of asynchronous hearings, purely digital hearings, audio-only linkages where necessitated or even virtual courts.

"Exploration and adoption of appropriate media would be key for timely delivery of justice," the e-Committee said.

However, it added that certain proceedings may require to continue with in person hearings.

In Phase III of the e-Courts project, the e-Committee will focus on enabling courts to deploy "quality digitally enabled hearings" based on nature and type of case.

"This will have to be supported by efforts by the High Courts to identify classes/ types of cases where in-person hearings should be retained, and where various forms of digital hearings can be adopted."

The Committee added,

"Digital hearings should also be supported by efforts to make the hearing public, and the process transparent. This can be achieved either through live streaming of hearings or where that is not possible, by making records of the proceedings freely accessible to ensure courts retain the 'open courts' principle… This can promote transparency and optimise time of lawyers, litigants and judges, whilst shortening the timelines for deciding cases and increasing access to hearings for differently abled persons."

It further said that case management system, open hearings and digital transcription of proceedings shall greatly assist the judges in-charge of legal aid authorities in more equitable and efficient allotment of cases to legal aid lawyers aided by data analysis.

Other proposals

Digital case registry: It will include a collection of case related data including the unique case number and case type. The Committee will work to build a unified case registry across courts through creation of data standards. Such a unique case locator will enable tagging of related matters across jurisdictions, enhance visibility of the status of a case for all parties involved and access services related to a case.

Repository of case laws: The Committee proposes to build a platform for freely accessible, updated and comprehensive database of all legal precedents in India. This will allow for democratised access to precedents for users, standardised citations across the judiciary.

Digital Case Management Systems: The Committee proposes to build a case management system that can be securely accessed by lawyers, clients, registry and judges, from anywhere. Such a system will leverage the capability to make documents machine readable as also SUVAS, to enable case documents available in multiple languages. It should allow for seamless access and exchange of documents among authorised users and the development of applications and interfaces to use this data.

Remote digital assistance: This service is proposed for assistance of litigants who are unable to access digital services or travel physically to the court premises. Initially such assistance may be a help desk for litigants to call and find out information regarding listing of their case or applying for a copy of an order/judgment to be sent by post, etc. Over time, remote digital assistance can also be expanded to providing litigants copies of orders/judgments in vernacular languages through post.

Virtual Court: The committee proposes to automate such processes in a proceeding that do not involve application of mind. For instance, compounding of offences by payment of challans, probate proceedings where no objectors enter appearance, small cause money claims and mutual consent divorce pleas, etc.

The current eCommittee is chaired by Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Judge, Supreme Court of India. Former judge of the Bombay High Court, Justice R.C. Chavan is the vice-chairperson of the committee. Mr Atul Madhukar Kurhekar, Member (Processes), Mr A. Ramesh Babu, Member (Process Management), Ms R. Arulmozhiselvi, Member (Human Resources) and Mr Kuldeep Singh Kushwah, Member (Systems) are the other members who are part of the eCommittee. 

Click Here To Download Draft Proposal

Read Draft Proposal