E-SCR portal and e-Courts project

E-SCR portal and e-Courts project

News: The Electronic Supreme Court Reports (e-SCR) portal started with just 2,238 translated judgments as of January 2023 and ended the year with over 31,000 rulings translated.

About:
• The e-SCR portal is an initiative by the Supreme Court of India to provide a digital version of the apex court’s judgments. It is also known as the electronic version of the Supreme Court Reports (eSCR). This portal facilitates access to the judgments of the Supreme Court, free of subscription or any other expense.
• The e-SCR portal is part of the eCourts project, which aims to digitize the Indian Judiciary for the benefit of litigants, judges, members of the Bar, law colleges and universities, governmental institutions, law clerks and researchers, judicial academies, civic society, and the public at large.
• The portal grants free access to approximately 34,000 judgments for lawyers, law students, and the general public. Judgments will be available on the Supreme Court website, mobile app, and the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) judgment portal.

What is the e-courts project?
• The eCourts Project is a mission mode project conceptualized on the basis of the “National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Indian Judiciary – 2005”
• The eCourts Mission Mode Project is a Pan-India Project, monitored and funded by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India for the District Courts across the country. The project aims to provide efficient & time-bound citizen-centric services delivery.
• The project has been implemented in two phases so far – Phase I and Phase II
• Phase I: Started in 2007, it involved computerization of the District Courts with the installation of hardware, LAN, and Case Information Software (CIS) for providing basic case-related services to the litigants and the lawyers. Concluded in 2015.
• Phase II: This phase involved further computerization of District & Subordinate court.
• The Union Cabinet has approved the eCourts Project Phase III as a Central Sector Scheme spanning four years (2023 onwards) with a financial outlay of Rs.7210 crore. It includes components like Scanning, Digitization and Digital Preservation of Case Records, Cloud Infrastructure, Infrastructure in newly set up courts, Establishment of Virtual Courts, fully functional eSewa Kendras, Paperless Court, Video Conferencing set-up, e- filing, Connectivity (Primary + Redundancy), Disabled friendly ICT enabled facilities, NSTEP, Online Dispute Resolution (ODR), Integration with Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS).