A lasting image of courtrooms, borrowed from almost every Hindi movie of the 1980s, is that of a bespectacled judge poring over sheaves and heaps of paper while the squeaks of an old ceiling fan only make the ambient silence absolute. But at the Karkardooma Courts complex in east Delhi, there is one that runs a wild brush on this picture of courtrooms.

The surprise starts with the walls which show off wood. No peeling paint, no aged concrete chipping off the ceiling – just the shine of polished wood. The leitmotif of the squeaking fan is gone. An air-conditioner maintains a comfortable temperature setting – for the judge and the accused alike. Add to the milieu some CFL lighting, and the swank of a corporate office is immediately apparent.

But among the atypical features, there are some more singularly so.

Looking for the gavel, you are more likely to wonder what exactly that curious lamp-like contraption on the bench does. That is not the only courtroom-alien. A closed-circuit (CC) camera stares right at the judge from the ceiling while three others capture proceedings from three corners of the room. The gadgetry also includes two LCD screens – one for the trial attendants, the other for the judge – on which proceedings, documents and depositions can be watched. However, the queerest sighting in the room are the three computers which make the bench look more like a office workstation.

This is India’s first district-
level e-court, inaugurated on February 8 by Justice Ajit Prakash Shah. The pilot project is being executed under the guidance of Justice
BD Ahmed of the computers committee of the Delhi High Court. The project is being funded by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) under the department of science and technology. C-DAC, Noida has been enlisted to develop the technology for the project and provide back-end support.
The LCD screens are the court’s mirrors on the wall. One airs court proceedings for those in attendance and the other exclusively for the bench. These mirrors of the courts are also portals – portals for deposition from jails, hospitals and police offices. The e-court ISDN line is used for videoconferencing.

A C-DAC representative dials the Tihar line and a face flickers on the screens. Moments later we have a stable visual. Under-trial Bharat Taneja is ready to depose from the jail. Preempting the security risks and costs involved in the transit of under-trials from prisons to the court and back, the technology used here just makes sure the necessity for transit is minimal. The videoconferencing facility is also a relief to witnesses and police who otherwise had to be physically present in the courtroom to testify. Currently, the court is linked to the Tihar jail, other Delhi courts’ complexes and the office of the deputy commissioner of police (Delhi East).

Coming back to the lamp-like contraption on the bench – it is a document visualiser. The secrecy surrounding court documents is dispelled using the device which projects any document on to the two LCD screens installed. The document is then visible to the accused, witnesses, lawyers, court staff and all present in the court. A lawyer can easily refer to the desired document during his argument and highlight the same on the LCD screen.  All documents and information are stored on the server housed behind the courtroom. And in a first, court proceedings are streamed live on the internet at http://delhicourts.nic.in/ecourt/e_main.html  except for sensitive cases.

This e-court could well be a sneak-peek at the future of the Indian judicial system – available at broadband speed, transparent and transcending distance barriers. And it claims to be paperless.
All records of trials past and ongoing have been digitised – more precisely scanned and filed in a database which the judge can access on a touch screen. Now, all the judge has to do is lift his finger and click and a minefield of trial data – sorted by case, date or Act – is available for reference.
“The government seems to have taken a cue from the Abhishek Bachchan ad and evolved this concept,” says Mahender Sharma, an advocate’s clerk working at the court. Clutching a bunch of files and notes, he can’t help but feel left out of the paperless grid. He is ready, though, to vouch for its success the day he is able to get certified copies of documents from the court without considerations to the court staff.  “We still have to make requests to the official or call in favours, or worse still, ‘take the guy out to tea’ to get the certified copies of documents. But now we don’t know what will be the status, whether we will get a CD or have to access the internet to get the copies. No doubt the scope for corruption goes down,” says Sharma.
Mohammad Rahat, a young advocate practising in the court, is enthusiastic as he feels that the e-court will make the life of lawyers easier. Lawyers will no longer have to carry files to the court. They can connect to the server through their laptops in the court and access the case documents.

Rakesh Mehta, additional public prosecutor with the court, feels that the system will take some time to stabilise as the complete ecosystem is not ready. To achieve a true paperless court the police, lawyers and other courts also need to become paperless. He believes it is too early to call it a success and that it will take time for the court to be fully functional. But at the same time, he minces no words in hailing it as the dawn of process reforms in courts. His wishlist includes technology to connect the LCD to the stenographer’s computer which will enable the lawyers and witnesses to see what is being recorded by the steno as evidence
Going ahead the e-court will be connected to the forensic lab in Rohini, GTB Hospital, Hedgewar Hospital and Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital. Doctors will be able to attend to their patients and will not lose their entire day just to be present as a witness in the court.

Videoconferencing facility will also be provided at all police stations in Delhi so that policemen may not have to spend their entire day to give their witness in the court. An SMS will alert the concerned police station’s personnel to get ready for deposition at the videoconferencing studio attached to the station. All they will then need to do is appear on camera.

For lawyers e-filing will be enabled whereby documents will be filed through the internet in digital form. They will also be able to inspect court files of their own cases through internet from their offices through secure login and password. Lawyers will also be able to display their arguments in form of presentations on the LCD screen in the court.

Outstation lawyers will be able to argue their matter through videoconferencing from anywhere in India.
Even though the right infrastructure is already in place the paperless court is still using paper files which are transported from a nearby room whenever required. There are paper based registers still in use and a printout of evidence record is still taken, signed by the witness and then scanned and saved. The e-court team at C-DAC Noida has preferred to wait and watch before commenting. But they have a lot of faith in their product. Theirs is a dilemma akin to that of all pioneers’ – watching and reading for flaws almost as if on a mission to find one, but at the same time hoping that there is none.
Says Rishi Prakash, a senior manager in the team,

“The project is up and running and the judge and other stakeholders have not faced a problem so far that our support staff present there couldn’t fix. Even as we keep our fingers crossed, we know this is the start of the next generation of courts in India.” Project engineer Sujit Kumar echoes the thought, saying, “The project was implemented with a view to bring process reforms in the functioning of courts. And so far, no one’s complaining. The training we gave those who are using the technology has facilitated a smooth transition. The interface that the judge or the clerk uses is very simple and easy to use.”

It may further take time for the horizontal transfer of the project to the 15,000 courts spread across 2,500 court complexes in the country. Generation of automated case list, copies of judgments, facilitating availability of case status and daily orders on website have already been implemented in big way across various district courts. But with the obvious benefits of re-visiting of testimony from recorded depositions, and technology ensuring transparency – this e-court is the next link in the evolution of the courts.