Judiciary to bridge gap between courts, litigants through SMS

New Delhi: In a major fillip to e-Courts project under the Digital India initiative, the flagship programme of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the judiciary has started tapping the potential of technology to reduce pendency of cases.

In a new, the judiciary is using technology to bridge the gap between courts and litigants with SMS and email messages directly being sent to litigants relating to a case about date of next hearing, adjournment, summons, etc.

Like the Railways, an SMS push service has also been started by the Union Law Ministry as part of the second phase of its e-Courts project where litigants from rural areas without internet connectivity can send unique case no (CNR No) to 9766899899 and obtain case status.

The eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase II (2015-19) is a national eGovernance project for ICT enablement of district and subordinate courts of the country. It is being implemented by the Centre with a total outlay of Rs 1,670 crore.

The major objectives of the project are to make the entire judicial system ICT-enabled by putting in place adequate and modern hardware and connectivity, automation of workflow management in all courts, electronic movement of records from taluka/trial to appeal courts, installation of video conferencing facility and recording of witness through video

conferencing etc.