The Covid-19 pandemic has led to bringing up new challenges near the judiciary system. In these unprecedented times, some never-imagined challenges have affected every sector of the economy in every nation. In the legal world, the challenge is even more graver. The pandemic has brought up a state of flux as the elements are being concerned.
In India, the covid-19 pandemic had hit when there were talks already going on for setting up the E-Court. The focus was on setting up E-Courts and also the digitization of the justice and court administration. The sudden and unexpected hit by the pandemic has led to a greater filip to bring up the rapid transmission in the manner of operation in the court’s administration.
Initiatives such as E-Governance in the justice and the court administration have been enhanced a lot in the Information Technology act 2000, amended in 2008. The E-judiciary is seen as a step towards the modernization of the legal system. Using computerized technology in the Judiciary is an excellent step in dealing up with pending cases.
A study was conducted on the court management techniques commissioned by the Ministry of Law and Justice of the Government Of India. It was to identify the various methods of court management that have been adopted by the managers of the court across the different subordinate courts to increase their efficiency in functioning.
- The E-Court Project- Before the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the e-courts project was the project of the National E-Governance. It was implemented in the district and also in the subordinates court of the country. The primary purpose behind this project was to provide a transparent, cost-effective and accessible cost-effective delivery of the judicial system to the citizens of the country with the use of Information and Technology and courts with the enabling of the Internet connectivity in the courts of India.
The E-court project has helped by providing digital connectivity in all the district courts of India.
- The Supreme Court App- An excellent step for digitizing the Judiciary and its administration in India is introducing the Supreme Court app. This step was already taken before the hitting of the Covid-19 pandemic in India. The Chief Justice of India had explained the utility of the application and expressed the hope that the law translation system fuelled by artificial intelligence would help in quality translation and play an influential role in improving the efficiency of the Indian Judicial System.
The supreme court app helps translate the supreme court judgements into nine regional languages of India. It is an app that is free to download and is also helpful in providing helpful information on the pending cases in a personalized dashboard for every user.
- The E-Court Service App- In 2017, much before the covid-19 pandemic, the e-court service app was launched in the Indian Judiciary. This app was developed to help the citizens of India by providing information about the cases going on in the High Court and the Supreme Court of India.
The E court services app helps in providing various other information. Some of them are as follows:
- The users can see the entire case history of a lawsuit filed through this app.
- There is a provision also for e-paying of the court’s fees for the lawyers and the litigants.
- The app is also helpful in providing the status of the entire case by scanning the QR code.
- The app is also directly connected with all the 18000 districts, the subordinate courts, and the 21 high courts.
- The case status of a total of 3.2 crore cases approximately would be available on the app.
- Functioning of the Court in the Covid-19 Crisis- With the derailment of the other sectors of the economy and democracy, the covid-19 pandemic has seriously impacted the normal functioning of the Judiciary of India and also in other nations of the world. The apex court and the high court, and that of the district court, also felt the crisis led by the pandemic.
Numerous steps had been taken by the supreme court at their level to ensure that the lawyers, litigants and also the general public visiting the court are safe from the pandemic. In the year March 2020, the Supreme Court had already issued a notification that the regular functioning of the court is restricted from 16th March 2020 until further notice.
The High courts, which is called the next lower level in the judicial system of India, had also issued various covid-19 related regulations and guidelines from time to time to ensure health-related safety of everyone working and visiting the court.
