The Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs (CCEA) had, in its meeting dated 8-Feb, 2007, approved a
project of computerization of the Indian Judiciary. The project was based on the National Policy and
Action Plan for Implementation of information and communication technology (ICT) in the Indian
Judiciary submitted by eCommittee (Supreme Court of India). The scope of the project, also called the
eCourts project, included computerization of 14249 district and subordinate courts in 3069 court
complexes and ICT upgradation of Supreme Court (SC) and High Courts for Rs. 935 Cr, to be completed
by 2014. This project is also one of the Mission Mode Projects (MMP) under the National eGovernance
Plan (NeGP).
Objectives:
The objective of the project was to provide following services by ICT enablement of all district and
subordinate courts in the country through provision of computer hardware, Local Area Network (LAN),
internet connectivity and installation of standard application software at each court complex, upgradation
of existing ICT Infrastructure of Supreme Court and all High Courts / Benches. It also included provision
of laptops, laser printers, broadband connectivity at home offices of Judicial Officers and imparting ICT
training to them. Power back up was also to be provided at these court complexes for the ICT
infrastructure through Diesel Generator Sets (DG Sets) and UPS. Technical manpower was also planned
for deployment in High Courts and judicial districts for providing Information Technology (IT) support at
these court complexes.
Services envisaged under the project
The services envisaged under the project cater to all key stakeholders including the Judiciary, the District
and Subordinate Courts and the Citizens / Litigants / Lawyers / Advocates. One of the key benefits of
computerization of courts would be the automation of Case Management. This would enable the judges
to exercise greater control over management of cases. Moreover, all courts will be linked and will have a
National Judicial Data Grid, which would result in the creation of the National Arrears Grid. This will help
in review and monitoring of pendency in cases across the country.
Citizens will be able to avail services through Judicial Service Center at a court complex. These would
include Filing of cases, issuance of certified copies of orders and judgments, information about Case
status etc.
Moreover, ICT enablement will make the functioning of the courts more efficient and will help the
judges in speedier disposal of cases, which will ultimately have a positive impact on the justice
delivery system.
The following lists the services envisaged for various stakeholders under the eCourts project:

District and Subordinate courts - Automation of case management workflow though use of
Application software – This would entail automation of activities such as Case Filing, Scrutiny,
Registration, Case Allocation, Court Proceedings, Details entry of a Case, Case Disposal &
restoration, Transfer of Case, Pendency data and Institution Registers, and Court Diaries,
Calculation of court fees etc.

Citizens / Litigants / Lawyers / Advocates – Citizens will be able to avail services through
Judicial Service Center at a court complex. Some of these services would include automated
case filing, issue of certified copies of orders and judgments, obtaining information about case
status.

Judiciary - Creation of National Judicial Data Grid and enabling monitoring of pendency in the
lower courts.
PROJECT COMPONENTS – BRIEF DESCRIPTION
Brief description of approved project components is as follows:
i. Creation of Computer Room at all the complexes / Site Preparation - A dedicated area for housing
the servers and related ICT equipments (Computer Server Room / CSR) is to be set up at each
subordinate court complex. This will also serve as the Judicial Service Centre, a citizen service
interface counter for provision of various services such as case filing, status enquiry, etc at the court
complex. Funds are transferred to the site preparation agency identified by the High Courts for
upgradation of existing civil infrastructure available for server rooms / judicial service centers at the
court complexes. The fund amount is based on the cost estimates sent by them to NIC and an upper
limit of Rs 2.5 lakhs +/- 10% per site.
ii. Provision of laptops and laser printers to judicial officers – It was planned to provide a laptop to
each judicial officer to enable them to work from their chamber, court room as well as from their home
office in an effective manner. The project aims at building capacity of all these judicial officers to
supervise and guide the process of computerization of courts.
iii. ICT Training for Judges & its Staff - ICT training had been planned to be imparted to judicial officers
and court staff with an aim to make them familiar and proficient in the use of ICT tools.
iv. Technical Manpower - Technical manpower is to be deployed at all district courts, HCs, HC Benches
and SC under the project. The technical manpower will provide ‘troubleshooting’ support and necessary
maintenance and training support at the court complex and assist in transition from a manual case
management system towards an ICT enabled one.
v. Computer Hardware - To ICT enable the subordinate courts in the country, it is planned to equip each
court complex with required computer hardware such as desktops, printers, servers, scanners,
projectors etc. Each judge and his supporting staff will be provided with 4 client machines, 3 printers;
sections like filing, nazarat etc will be provided with thin clients and printers, and ICT hardware as
servers, scanners etc will be installed at the computer server rooms in each court complex.
vi. Communication, Connectivity and Local Area Network – Following has been planned under this
head:
 Procurement and installation of Local Area Network (LAN) at all court complexes
 Provision of internet connectivity for judges/court complexes
 To connect all court complexes under State Wide Area Network (SWAN) and also provide for last
mile connectivity from SWAN’s Point of Presence (PoP) till the court complexes
vii. Power Backup - It is planned to provide UPS and DG sets to create the necessary power backup
infrastructure for ICT infrastructure at a court complex. UPS will provide power backup to desktops /
servers and DG sets will be used to provide power backup to ICT infrastructure at the CSR and the
JSC. Procurement of DG sets will be done at local level and UPS will be provided along with the
computer hardware items.
viii. Upgrading ICT infrastructure of Supreme Court and High Courts - It is planned to upgrade the
existing ICT infrastructure at SC and all HCs through provision of additional servers, client machines,
networking equipment, power infrastructure, cabling etc under this project.
ix. Development of application software – Application software is planned for deployment in district and
subordinate courts with the aim of automation of case management lifecycle and all major processes
such as case filing, scrutiny, registration, allocation, court diary / proceedings, etc. Cause lists, Case
status, certified copies of orders and copy of judgments will also be made available for online download
or viewing. It is being developed by NIC under guidance of Software Committee, chaired by Hon’ble
eCommittee Chairman.
x. Project Management, project monitoring and Change Management Consultancy
To ensure smooth and on time implementation of the project, establish a monitoring mechanism for a
project of this scale, and assist in change management activities; provision had been made for hiring of
external consultants.
xi. System Software, Office Tools, etcSystem software such as Operating System for servers, desktops etc, and office tools has been
planned to be provided for the client machines / servers being provided under this project.
xii. Digital Signature and Smart Card Solutions
It is planned to provide all 13000 judges / judicial officers with a digital signature certificate, to enable
them to digitally sign the judgments or any electronic official documents that require signature. Till date,
purchase orders have been issued to vendor for 3000 smart card tokens. Delivery of same is under
process.
xiii. Process Reengineering – It is planned to carry out process re-engineering exercise for the case
management and other processes. Methods and ways of improving the case management processes
(through use of ICT) are to be explored, with the aim of increasing system efficiency and speeding up
the judicial processes. It is yet to be taken up.
xiv. Creation & Up gradation of Centralized facility for system administration
A centralised facility is proposed to be created for the purpose of maintaining the Network Operating
Centre, central database, managing judicial data grid and maintaining the dedicated portal for the use
of the entire judiciary. It is proposed to use the NIC State Data Centres for co-locating servers for
judicial data of each High Court, and set up one national data centre in NIC Data Centre and one
Disaster Recovery site. It is yet to be taken up.
xv. Video conferencing in approx. 500 locations
Videoconferencing was planned to establish video conferencing connectivity between 500 locations
between prisons and district courts. Video Conferencing permits virtual interfacing of a Judge with
witnesses, holding of conferences, meetings, production of under-trial prisoners, etc. The facility would
need to be installed in the prison and within the court complex premise.