All Decided Cases in Punjab, Haryana High Court Digitised

Chairman of Computer Committee Justice Rajesh Bindal said this while speaking at a regional discussion regarding the e-courts project at the Chandigarh Judicial Academy (CJA) in Chandigarh.

The discussion was presided over by Justice Madan B Lokur, of the Supreme Court and In-charge, e-Committee, SC, an official release said.

"The e-committee, Supreme Court, in consultation with the Central government, had introduced the computerisation project 'e-courts Phase-I' with a total outlay of Rs 900 crore to computerise the subordinate courts across the country to facilitate litigants and advocates," Justice Lokur said.

The e-courts Phase-I project culminated in the National Judicial Data Grid, on which till date, 2.3 crore pending cases and 2.7 crore decided cases are available.

The e-committee has extended the e-Court programme to Phase-II with a total outlay of Rs. 1,670 crores, out of which a sum of Rs. 200 crores was released for the purchase of hardware in 2015-16, he said.

Elaborating various citizen-centric services introduced by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal said that the digitisation exercise had resulted in scanning of 15.90 crore pages and disposal of 225 tonnes of waste papers, which generated a revenue of Rs. 22 lakh and freed valuable space of 15,000 square feet.

He said that the court had also prepared e-Filing and e-Diary software for the convenience of litigants and advocates, who could file cases online from the comfort of their home.

An advocate can save his case and browse the case information real time along with judgement and orders passed by the courts using this feature, he said.

Digitisation of court records has allowed sharing of soft files with the Advocate General's Office, Union of India counsel and other departments, thereby enhancing quality of assistance offered by government counsel, he added.

Also, a demonstration of e-Filing module which enables the advocates and litigants to file cases online round-the-clock as per their convenience from their home by paying court fee online was also held.

This e-Filing software is likely to be launched for general public in August, 2016.