Core values of digital courts:

1. Trust– Digitization of courts should ensure the protection of constitutional and legal rights of individuals. In cases when there is live streaming of the court proceedings, a transparency is ensured and feedbacks must be taken at every step, in order to build up trust.
2. Empathy– Digitization efforts should ensure that it shares the feelings of the individuals, their data and information etc. in a manner that it is experiencing within oneself.
3. Sustainability– Digitization should ensure environment sustainability, like less usage of papers, travelling of lawyers, movement of documents etc. The e-courts large amount of money and people make the entire system financially sustainable.
4. Transparency– open courts, open technology and open access to data and information ensures open justice, which further leads to transparency, trust and accountability.

Benefits Of Stakeholders

1. For citizens- Access to courts anywhere to them and ensuring timely justice, Multiple regional languages are accessible to citizens for their understanding the process and ensuring justice, Overall reduces the cost of justice to them, transparency is involved in the system and the trust is inbuilt and they can track their case status.
2. For Lawyers– The process will save time and will be cost efficient, no loss of records from the digital case file, time utilisation, orders available in regional languages, involve women and differently abled lawyers, and greater information will be available about similar cases.
3. For Judges- Greater support from lots of information, tracking of the cases of the courts, time management and prioritisation of cases, greater ease to search and lots of tools.
4. For Court Staff- Reduces their burden, no need to depend on them for physical registry, and provides smart templates and designs for the case.
5. For the Judicial and Legal System- Ensures better visibility of the types and classes of cases, smooth and efficient functioning of the legal system, data generated by the system is much better in all ways, access to open data will be in the benefit of all individuals, sustainability of the environment is ensured, and time saving process and security will be maintained.

Towards Digital Courts

As the first step it is necessary to examine the changes that took place in the judicial processes and procedures prior to the digital era and to reevaluate that whether such processes fit in the current digital age and are in line with the vision and the underlying values of trust, empathy, sustainability, and transparency.

Process Re-Engineering

The traditional court processes are repetitive and routine, and technology can be used to improve efficiency, reduce cost, time and efforts of the users involved in the traditional paper-based tasks.  The examples of such use of technology include –

• Use of case number to refer the main matter instead of filing the complete copy of petition along with other supporting documents;
• Use of audio and video to present the arguments and evidence would also enable recording of these proceedings;
• Enable service of notice through digital means;
• Integrating payment of the court fees with the process fee, etc.

Technology plays a transformative role and can be used in situations where the judicial mind isn’t required to be applied This can also be extended to situations where there is a need to determine fair compensation and help avoid or contain disputes.

Aishwarya Says:

I have always been against Glorifying Over Work and therefore, in the year 2021, I have decided to launch this campaign “Balancing Life”and talk about this wrong practice, that we have been following since last few years. I will be talking to and interviewing around 1 lakh people in the coming 2021 and publish their interview regarding their opinion on glamourising Over Work.

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