Tech is now constitutional instrument strengthening equality before law, access to justice: CJI Kant

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India Surya Kant on Saturday said technology is no longer an administrative convenience, but has become a constitutional instrument and a tool that strengthens equality before law, expands access to justice, and allows the judiciary to transcend procedural rigidities.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the National Conference on Judicial Process Re-engineering and Digital Transformation, CJI Kant said that at the core of any justice system lies a simple but enduring promise that every individual, regardless of means or circumstances, must be able to access justice in a fair, timely and effective manner.

Addressing the gathering of apex court judges, judicial officers, judges of the high court and district judges in the presence of union ministers Arjun Ram Meghwal and Jitin Prasada, CJI Kant said the reform of a justice system is measured by how meaningfully citizens, advocates and other stakeholders will be able to benefit from it.

"We must ensure that every court serves as an integrated digital court equipped not only with hybrid hearing facilities, but capable of functioning as a fully paperless court. Technology has become a constitutional instrument. It is no longer an administrative convenience; it is a tool that strengthens equality before the law, expands access to justice, and allows the judiciary to transcend procedural rigidities," the CJI said.

He added that they have a larger vision for the creation of a 'natively digital' ecosystem, a future where justice is not merely a place one goes to, but a service that is seamless, transparent, and available to every individual.

"I am glad to say that now this is not merely an aspiration for the distant future; it is work already underway. The e-Committee is actively building the 'digital bedrock' that will allow technology to serve the entire lifecycle of a case and integrate every stakeholder of the justice delivery system," the CJI said.

Emphasising that in a country as socially and geographically diverse as India, digitisation cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by genuine accessibility, CJI Kant said the establishment of 2,331 e-Sewa Kendras has played an important role in this respect.

"These Kendras provide assistance in accessing case status, facilitate video conferencing, and offer support to those who may otherwise find digital systems difficult to navigate. I am confident that these initiatives will ensure that access to digital justice does not depend on a person's wealth or linguistic proficiency. Technology must transcend physical and economic barriers, and that must remain our guiding principle," he said.

The CJI further said that phase III for the e-courts project, which was supported by the Centre with an outlay of Rs 7,210 crore, was designed to be a decisive reorientation of the entire enterprise, and the vision animating the phase was to carry the promise of digitisation to the remotest corner of our country.

"It seems to me that technology, by itself, is not the yardstick for advancement. At best, it can accelerate a process. But if the underlying processes remain cumbersome and rooted in outdated procedural structures, technology can provide only limited relief. It may improve convenience, but it cannot, by itself, bring about the structural reform that our justice system requires," he said, adding that the changes, which have been taken by the judiciary over the years, have marked the emergence of a new kind of system.

CJI highlighted structural reforms made in the form of the National Judicial Data Grid and said it is perhaps one of the most consequential transparency and monitoring tools any democracy has created for its justice system, enabling tracking of over 4.5 crore pending cases in real time.

"It gave us the gift of e-filing, which allowed litigants and advocates to approach courts without physically entering them. And it laid the foundation for Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS), an AI-enabled translation tool, that undertook the momentous task of translating the vast repository of Supreme Court judgments into regional languages," he said.

Justice Vikram Nath, who is the chairperson of the e-Committee of the Supreme Court, which is responsible for digitally interlinking all courts and forming an IT-enabled judiciary system in the country, announced that to ensure consistency and decorum of court proceedings, pilot testing of digital courts 2.1 is underway, and soon it will be rolled out across the country.

"We have also taken important steps towards enhancing transparency. The live streaming of court proceedings has opened the doors of our courtrooms to the public in an unprecedented manner. This initiative has been successfully introduced in several high courts... To ensure consistency and decorum, the e-Committee has framed model rules for live streaming and recording of court proceedings, and the pilot testing of digital courts. 2.1 is already underway. This initiative will soon be rolled out across the country and will further standardise and enhance our digital capabilities," he said.

Justice Nath said judicial process re-engineering is not about altering the fundamentals of justice but about redesigning the pathways through which justice is delivered.

"It requires us to deconstruct existing workflows, remove redundancies and rebuild them with clarity and efficiency," he said.