Critical Analysis of Informational Technology

Infrastructure in Indian Judicial System

Kalpeshkumar Gupta & Sujo Thomas
Academic Associates Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
advocatekgupta@gmail.com
All we know the importance of Information Technology. Each and every part of the working system now
needs to be associated with IT infrastructure. Today we cannot imagine the life without the IT system. Indian
Judicial System facing big challenge of judicial backlog of more than 3.2 crores cases. One of the main
reasons behind this is lack of IT infrastructure in the judicial system. IT infrastructure will certainly help to
reduce the backlog to the larger extent. Present paper will critically analyze the present IT Infrastructure in
the Indian Judicial System.

1.
Key Words : Informational Technology, Infrastructure, Indian Judicial System

1. Introduction to Indian Judicial

of judges. Court personnel are paid off to slow

down or speed up a trial, or to make a complaint go

System

away. Judges are also subject to pressure from

above, with legislators or the executive using their

Judicial System in India

power to influence the judiciary, starting with

In general terms we can see three types of courts in

Indian Judicial System i.e. Supreme Court, High
Courts and Subordinate Courts. In other terms this
is called judicial authority. But with the passage of
the time need arose to establish special bodies to
adjudicate special kind of cases, in legal term it is
called Quasi-judicial body. Example of the this
bodies are Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Central
Administrative

Tribunal,

Intellectual

skewed appointment processes. Citizens are often

unaware of their rights, or resigned, after so many
negative experiences, to their fate before a corrupt
court. Court efficiency is also crucial, as a serious
backlog

of

cases

creates

opportunities

for

demanding unscheduled payments to fast-track a

case.
Judicial backlog

Property

Board, Debt Recovery Tribunal, Consumer Forum,

Indian courts have large backlogs having more than

Railway Claims Tribunal etc.

3.2 Crores cases. For instance, the Delhi High

Court has a backlog of 466 years according to its

Current issues in Indian Judicial System

According to the World Bank, "although India's
courts are notoriously inefficient, they at least
comprise a functioning independent judiciary" A
functioning judiciary is the guarantor of fairness
and a powerful weapon against corruption. But
peoples experiences in fall far short of this ideal.
Corruption in the judiciary goes beyond the bribing

chief justice. This is despite the average processing

time of 4 minutes and 55 seconds in the court. In
Uttam Nakate case, it took two decades to solve a
simple employment dispute. However it needs to
be mentioned that the concept of backlogs doesn't
describe the actual reason for some many cases
lying in the courts. Rather the term "backlog" has
been misused and the term "pendency" is the right

word for describing the large number of cases

National Mission for Justice Delivery and Legal

pending in the courts today. As could be

Reforms.

understood, the largest numbers of cases that are

actually pending in the Indian Courts are that of

Reforms

minor Motor Vehicle Cases, petty crimes such as

stealing, abusing, insult, slap, etc. It is an
established fact which the Govt. of India accepts
that there is 40% shortage of judicial staff.
Opposition and ruling party's corrupt politicians
profit from the delays in the system.

that people's faith in judiciary was decreasing at an

rate,

posing

The E-courts project was established in the year

2005. According to the project, all the courts
including taluka courts will get computerized. As
per the project in 2008, all the District courts were

On January 12, 2012, a Supreme Court bench said

alarming

E-Courts Mission Mode Project

grave

threat

to

constitutional and democratic governance of the

country. It sincerely acknowledged few of the

initialized under the project. The case lists of most

district courts are available in http://lobis.nic.in.
This

website

is

updated

daily.

Now

the

establishment work is going on taluka courts. The

project also includes producing witnesses through
video conference. Filing cases, proceedings, and all

serious problems such as

other details will be in computers.

1.

Large number of vacancies in trial courts,

2.

Unwillingness of lawyers to become judges,

3.

Failure of the apex judiciary in filling vacant

Ever since NIC took up computerization in

Supreme Court in 1990, many applications have
been computerized which have impact on masses

HC judges posts.

i.e.

litigants.

Following
which

are

have

some

been

of

the

Chief Justice of India Altamas Kabir said, Today

applications

successfully

a major problem is delay where the entire process,

implemented at Supreme Court and 18 High Courts

from when an offence is registered to the stage of

and these applications have either direct or indirect

final convocation, takes almost 15 to 60 years.

impact on the masses

This delay is the main thing which bothers

judiciary and because of inordinate delay,
sometimes we see angry reaction from public
feeling

that

something

should

be

done

immediately

amicus curiae's suggestion that access to justice

be

made

consequently

It is about scheduling of cases to be heard by the

courts on the following day. It enabled the
Registries of Supreme Court and High Courts in

It wanted to seek answers from the government on

must

List of Business Information System (LOBIS) :

the

constitutional
executive

right

must

and

provide

necessary infrastructure for ensuring every citizen

enjoyed this right. It also wanted the Government
of India to detail the work being done by the

eliminating

manual

process

of

Cause

List

generation thus any manipulation by vested

interests. These databases contain details of fresh
cases, disposed and pending cases. It is the
backbone application of every Court.

Filing Counter Computerization

generate Daily and Weekly Causelists from the

computer servers installed by NIC. The Causelist

In the Supreme Court of India and all High Courts

application is the backbone application of all courts

fresh cases are filed only before the computerized

as no court can function without that days

Filing Counters. As the advocates stand in queue

Causelist. Hence this has become near time critical

for Filing cases before the counters, the data entry

application in all the Courts. (causelists.nic.in)

Operator enters preliminary details required for

Registration such as Party names, advocate details,

High Courts Computerization

etc. The computer terminal at the query counter is

used to attend to the quarries of the litigants on the

NIC took up computerization of all 21 High Courts

spot. The defects, if any, are listed out and handed

and 9 Benches on the lines of Apex Courts

over to the litigants/advocates for rectification.

Computerization. NIC implemented the List of

Time limitation is also checked by the system

Business Information (LOBIS) in all High Court

automatically.

Courts. Some of the High Courts Cause List is

also

COURTNIC

available

on

Internet.

Many

possible

applications in all High Courts have been

computerized. Most of the High Courts have

This is about providing Supreme Courts' pending

opened query counters along with Filing Counters

case status information to litigants/advocates on

for providing pending cases information to the

any node of NICNET. COURTNIC answers about

litigants and advocates.

two hundred queries of litigants/advocates per day

all over the country on the status of their pending

District Courts Computerization

cases. It is available on nominal charges. Primarily

COURTNIC information is available in all NIC-

In 1997, NIC took up the computerization of all

High Court Computer Cells and in some District

District Courts in the country on the lines of High

Court. It has been in use since 1993.

Courts

Computerization

Project.

The

basic

objectives of the project are:

JUDIS

NIC has brought out Judgment Information System

(JUDIS) consisting of complete text of all reported

the litigants and advocates

judgment of Supreme Court of India from 1950 to

till Date. (judis.nic.in)

to provide transparency of information to

to help the judicial administration in

streamlining its activities

to provide judicial and legal databases to

the District Judges

Cause Lists on Internet

NIC provided three level training programs to the
Causelists are scheduling of cases to be heard by

District Court officials. The three levels are:

the courts on the following day. The Causelists of

Supreme Court and many other High Courts are

Computer Awareness Programs for the

available on NIC Web Servers. As the Supreme

District Judges. These training programs

Court of India and all the 18 High Courts and their

were chaired by either the Hon'ble Chief

10 Benches are fully computerized, all these courts

Justice or one of the Hon'ble Judges of the

At District Court Level

concerned High Court.

Supervisory level training at NIC State

Centres. These supervisory level officials
were identified and sent to NIC State
Centres by the District Courts for training
on day to day maintenance of the

subordinate courts in the infancy stage. 37 Districts

are having their own website for listing out all
details regarding cases but in some of the website
data are not there and if available for last some
years.

computers and its peripherals.

As of now computerization in district and

In-house hands on training to the District

Following is the status on e- courts Project

Court officials working on the computer

terminals.

The

District

Informatics

Sr.
No.

All India
Status

Officers of NIC posted at the District

Magistrates' Office imparted this training.

12430

Work
Completion
%
(Total
Sanctioned
courts
15946)
78

11076

69

12030

75

Status as
on
31/01/2013
(No of
Courts)

All officials have been trained on 'District Court

Information System' (DCIS) SW. The DCIS

Installation

Software is a huge general purpose Software

package developed for the computerization of

Local

Area

Network

District Courts. This software takes care of all

Installation

aspects of District Court needs.

3
The project is yet to pick up momentum in most of

Hardware

Software
Deployment

the District Courts for want of interest from the

Note: - Information received through Right to

District Court officials. NIC has proposed to

Information Application filed in National

conduct another round of Training to the users

Informatics Centre.

2. Information Technology

3. Information Technology

Infrastructure in Indian Judicial

Infrastructure in Indian Quasi-

Bodies.

Judicial Bodies.

In this part we will see the over view of the IT

Infrastructure in Indian Judicial Body.

In earlier part we saw the IT Infrastructure in

Judicial Body, now we will see status of IT
implementation in some quasi-judicial bodies.

SC & HC Level
Presently almost of the quasi-judicial bodies are
Supreme Court of India and all 21 High Courts are

enabled with IT infrastructure to facilitate the

fully computerized. All filings are done with the

adjudicating

help of IT Support. SC and High Courts are having

difference statues/legislations.

respective

case

matter

under

their website which is having features of Causelist,

Case Status, Daily Orders, Judgments which are
crucial in effective justice delivery system.

Computerization & Computer Networking of

Consumer Forums in Country (CONFONET)

The

CONFONET

developed

in

support

of

Consumer Protection Act, 1986 which aims at

with

IT

Infrastructure

which

also

provides

causelist, judgments, orders etc.

protect the interest of the consumer. There are three

level of grievance redressal viz District Forum,

Debt Recovery Tribunal

State Commission and National Commission. This

Debt Recovery Tribunal established to help

project integrates all three level set up under

financial institutions to recover their bad debt

Consumer Protection Act. CONFONET provides

speedily and effectively. Presently there are 33

services as given under

DRT and 5 Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal

Information

Consumer

Rights

&

Protection
-

Online Causelist

Online Judgment

Online Case status and Case History

Statistical Reports.

This website provides a comprehensive detail on

Consumer Protection cases at different level.
Competition Appellate Tribunal

across the country. There is no common website for

debt recovery tribunal. Some DRTs are having
their separate sites for listing out case details and
other allied matters and some do not have.
Websites shows details of Causelist, Auction
Notices etc.
Central Administrative Tribunal
The Central Administrative Tribunal has been
established for adjudication of disputes with
respect to recruitment and conditions of service of

Competition Appellate Tribunal having principal

persons appointed to public services and posts in

office at New Delhi hears the appeal against order

connection with the affairs of the Union or other

of Competition Commission of India. Tribunal is

local authorities. This tribunal established by the

having IT infrastructure provides details for

amendment of Constitution of India by Articles

causelist, orders, notices etc,

323A. There are 21 benches including principal

bench at New Delhi. CAT is fully computerized

Railway Claims Tribunal (RCT)

and it is having its common website showing

The Railway Claims Tribunal Act, 1987 provides

details of all benches situated all over the India. It

for establishment of the Railway Claims Tribunals.

also provides details of causelist, judgment etc.

There are 19 benches including principal bench at

New Delhi. RCT is fully enabled with IT

4. Findings of RTI application

Infrastructure provided details for Causelist, Case

Status, Judgments and other relevant matter to the

regarding Information

case.

Technology Infrastructure in

Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT)

Indian Judicial System

Securities Appellate Tribunal is a statutory body

In this part we will see present situation of IT

established under Securities Exchange Board of

Infrastructure as per the information received from

India (SEBI) to hear and dispose of the appeal

National Informatics Centre, New Delhi under the

against the order passed by SEBI. It has only one

Ministry

bench which sits at Mumbai. SAT is well equipped

Technology, Govt. of India. For obtaining this

of

Communication

&

Information

information we filed an application under Right to

NIC provided technical assistance to

Information regarding computerization in Indian

Supreme

Judicial System in the department on January 29,

Subordinates courts & Tribunals for their

2013. I received following information from the

computerization activities. For status of

office on March 4, 2013

computerization of Indian Courts, web site

Court,

all

High

Courts,

http://indiancourts.nic.in may please be

1.

Total Budget for computerization in

Indian

Courts

(Year

wise

accessed. The status on e-courts project is

budget

given as under.

allocation and actual spending details

from 1990 till 2012). Give full details for
Supreme

Court,

Subordinate

All

Courts,

High

3.

Courts,

Tribunals,

Give full status of implementation of List

of Business Information System (LOBIS)

other

www.lobic.nic.in

quasi-judicial bodies, State wise budget

etc.

For uploading causelist & judgment by

High Courts/Subordinate courts. NIC has

The details on budget allocation &

provided technical support for developing

expenditure details of the current e-courts

Mission

Mode

Project

funded

www.lobis.nic.in site. The respective High

by

Courts/Subordinate Courts are uploading

Department of Justice being implemented

the documents using their own resources.

across India is given below. The fund

allocated

under

Project

is

For full implementation of this facility, the

for

above link may please be accessed.

implementation in District & Subordinate

Currently 125 district courts are using the

Courts across the country. Hence State

wise

expenditure

cannot

be

lobis.nic.in for uploading causelist and

shown

judgments.

separately. NIC, using its own available

budget

started

computerization

of

4.

Supreme Court and other High Courts

Give full status of implementation of

www.courtnic.nic.in

during the years 1990-96. However, the

detail year wise funding of budget

The Case Status information is derived

allocation and actual spending details

from

1990-96

are

not

from the databases of the concerned

available

courts.

immediately.

It

can

be

accessed

at

http://courtnic.nic.in. Presently Supreme

Court of India, 21 High Courts, 15 High

2.

Status

of

computerization

in

Indian

Court benches, are using the website for

Courts. Give full details for Supreme

uploading their case status details.

Court, All High Courts, and Subordinate

Courts, Tribunals, other Quasi-judicial
bodies.

(Present

status

and

Matters for implementation etc.)

Pending

5.

Give full status of implementation of

www.judis.nic.in (How many courts are
covered and how many are pending to be
covered till date etc.?)

During execution of capital city courts

Information not given.

project at 29 location across the country,

6.

Give full status of implementation of

three level training has been imparted to

www.indiancourts.nic.in

many

courts officials through the technical

courts are covered and how many are

manpower engaged at these locations

pending to be covered till date etc.?)

under guidance of NIC technical persons

(How

posted at respective High Courts during

2004-26

NIC has provided technical assistance in

designing www.indiancourts.nic.in portal
which has links to various web site to the
end users. Individual status of each

9.

Give full status of implementation of

www.indiacode.nic.in

application like courtnic/judis/Causelists

is answered separately. Apart from this,

NIC has provided technical assistance to

links to the website(s) of The Honble

Ministry of Law & Justice for developing

Supreme Court, 21 High Courts, 37

the website www.indiacode.nic.in. Data as

Districts courts and 10 Tribunals are

provided by the Legislative Department,

currently on website. Also the portal has

Ministry of Law and Justice made

external links to the India Code website

available on this site. For further details,

and the Ministry of Law and Justice

the above website may be accessed.

website.
10. Expected
7.

time

for
of

Indian

complete

Give full status of implementation of

computerization

Courts,

www.causelists.nic.in (How many courts

Tribunals, other Quasi-Judicial Bodies

are covered and how many are pending to

As per the timeline set under e-courts

be covered till date etc.?)

Mission Mode Project, 14, 249 courts are

NIC technically assisted in developing the

to be computerized covering 3069 court

website http://causelists.nic.in to enable

complexes across the country by March

causelist of the Honble Supreme Court of

2014. The status of the same is enclosed

India and 21 High Courts, 15 High Courts

as under. Tribunals & other quasi-judicial

benches and 23 Districts courts hosts in

bodies computerization were not executed

this website by themselves.

by NIC directly. However technical

assistance provided wherever it was

8.

Give

full

inception)

details
of

three

(yearwise
level

since

sought.

training

programme to the District Court Officials.

Provisional Expenditure Statement for

(Three level Computer Awareness

Phase I of E-Courts Mission Mode Project

Programmes, Supervisory Level Training,

as on 31/01/2013

In-house hands on training).

Financial Year

Amount Received
(In crores)

2004-2005

103.5

2006-2007

84

2008-2009

25.9

2009-2010

65

2010-2011

97.5

2011-2012

31.39

2012-2013

68.5

Total

556.34

Rs. surrendered in

5.58

Computerization / IT Infrastructure in Indian

Judicial

System

but

it

provided

superficial

incomplete information. I have summarized the

data in the previous part of the paper.
Justice Delayed Justice Denied has become
inherent part of the Indian Judicial System. Many
people are losing faith in the Indian Judicial
System because of time consuming justice delivery
system. Robust IT Infrastructure will help to reduce
backlog of the cases.

5.2 Recommendation

the financial year

550.76
Expenditure

517.84

Balance Amount

32.92

It is the need of the hour to expedite the process of

computerization in Indian Judicial System. Proper
monitoring system is required for efficient and
effective IT support system in Indian Judicial

5. Concluding Remarks

System. We have proposed a unique model of

National Court Management Authority in Indian

5.1 Conclusion

Judicial System in year 2012 which will be assisted

Journey of computerization in Indian Judicial

by Court Managers appointed under the guidelines

System started in 1990 but till now Supreme Court,

issues by 13th Finance Commission issued in 2010.

High Courts and High Courts Benches have been

As per the guidelines court manager will ensure

fully enabled with IT Infrastructure but at the

that the IT system of the court comply with

District Level it is in the infancy stage. Till now

standards established by the High Courts and are

only 127 out of 552 judicial districts are using

fully functional and feed the proposed National

lobis.nic.in for listing out details of causelist,

Arrears Grid to be set up to monitor the disposal of

judgment. It will be big task to computerize 15946

cases in all the courts, as and when it is set up.

sanctioned courts in India and enabled with other

website of Indian Judicial System i.e. lobis.nic.in,
causelist.nic.in etc. More than 2.79 crores are
pending at the District and Subordinate Courts.
One of the reasons for this backlog is lack of IT
infrastructure and its full implementation. 37
Districts are having their own website for listing

[1] Delay in Justice a major challenge, says CJI

Altamas Kabir retrieved from
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/delay-inJustice-a-major-challenge-says-cji-altamaskabir/1075609 retrieved on March 7, 2013
[2] Transparency International Annual Report 2010

some years.

[3] High Court in Delhi is 466 years behind

schedule available at
http://www.newsofdelhi.com/delhi-news/highCourt-new-delhi-466-years-behind-schedule
retrieved on September 10, 2012

We made an attempt to get some information from

[4] http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNA

out all details regarding cases but in some of the

website data are not there and if available for last

National

Information

Centre

regarding

L/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSAREGT
OPPRISECDEV/0,,print:Y~isCURL:Y~contentM
DK:20584873~menuPK:496677~pagePK:3400417
3~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:496671,00.html
[5] http://confonet.nic.in/
[6] http://compat.nic.in/ retrieved
[7] http://www.rct.indianrail.gov.in/
[8] http://sat.gov.in/
[9] http://bankdrt.net/
[10] http://cgat.gov.in/

[11] http://indiancourts.nic.in/courts/itinjud.htm