E-Courts Have Failed In India Despite Govt Claims

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has never been a priority of Indian Government. This is more so regarding legal enablement of ICT systems in India. The Government of India (GOI) was never serious about cyber law in India, cyber security in India, cyber forensics in India, etc. On the judicial side as well, there has been no efforts whatsoever in the direction of using ICT for streamlining judicial functioning in India. By and large, E-Courts in India are still missing in India despite the tall claims by GOI. Despite the involvement of GOI, Supreme Court of India, National Informatics Center (NIC), Ministry of Home Affairs, etc this Integrated MMP is a complete failure. Similarly on the front of cyber law, cyber security and cyber forensics as well India has failed miserably.

In fact, Perry4Law, the leading Techno-Legal Firm of India, has found that there has been no work or efforts in the direction of establishment of E-Courts in India. All that the GOI has done is the supplying of laptops to the members of Indian judiciary. According to Mr. Praveen Dalal, Managing Partner of Perry4Law and leading Techno-legal Experts of India, “There is a clear lack of insight as well as capabilities on the part of Indian Government and others managing the e-courts project in India. Repeatedly the GOI has declared that India has finally established e-courts. The fact remains that there are no e-courts in India and we are not even “close” to achieving that task. With this speed and expertise India needs at least 10 more years to effectively and actually implement e-courts projects in India”.

Interestingly, Perry4Law has already provided the First Update, Second Update, Third Update and Fourth Update regarding e-courts status in India. These updates very clearly show that for the time being, Indian e-courts project has stalled and no development and progress is happening in this regard. It seems we are heading towards another “yearly extension” as in the absence of any action in this regard that is the only natural outcome