Now, even a sceptic must concede that this could be the beginning of something good. Actually, come to think of it, there is no option for the judicial system other than deploying modern information processing techniques.

Information technology can, (a) immediately cut down the volume of paper significantly and (b) bring in enough automation and efficiency to dramatically reduce running costs.

The Experiment

It all began in 1998 when the then information technology minister, Pramod Mahajan, visited Singapore. Impressed by the virtual court and electronic filing system there, he wrote to the chief justice of India about examining the possibility of replicating the system at home.

"The committee of judges ordered a report from our technical division and has agreed in principle to set up the e-court on an experimental basis," a senior administrator said.

In June 2002, Chief Justice of India Justice B N Kripal told a seminar on judicial reforms that an electronic filing system for filing cases in the apex court would be launched within a couple of months.

Now all the proceedings in the proposed e-court will be done in electronic format. The lawyers will not have to line up at the filing counter inside the court but can file the petitions through email from anywhere.

The Information Technology Act will require digital signatures to be put on all electronic documents being produced before the court. When the e-court, becomes operational, the court will issue digital signatures to the lawyers registered with it.

Equipped with videoconferencing facility, the e-court would begin an era of e-advocacy. A lawyer registered with it can argue his case using the videoconferencing facility from anywhere once the SC approves of the proposal.

It is a straight lift from the Singapore model, which allows advocates to argue cases and make statements by videoconferencing from any corner of the world.

As in Singapore, the proposed e-court would enable the witnesses and the defence to depose without being present in the court. From the security point of view, it removes risks involved in ferrying witnesses or intertrials in sensitive cases to the court compound. Also, litigants from across the country can make their statements by videoconference without going to Delhi.

It has been proposed to set up videoconference units in the state capitals to facilitate the litigants and lawyers' use of the e-court facility. The National Informatics Centre would install the infrastructure.

The Supreme Court's date with IT started in 1994, with the NIC providing the cause list, orders, statutes and other data on the Web for free access. NIC has already deployed videoconferencing within the judiciary system in Bihar. According to an NIC newsletter, videoconferencing based public justice for the intertrials, conducted in Bihar created history in the judiciary system where videoconferencing was extended from Beur jail to a civil court.

Over 100 intertrials were released after recording their statements of facts. The NIC has prepared a proposal for videoconferencing facilities for all jails and civil courts. The exercise has been further carried out at Muzaffernagar and Gaya towns in Bihar.

Meanwhile, the apex court is also going to launch a computerised telephone service called the Interactive Voice Response System, which will let litigants and advocates know the status of their cases by dialing the case numbers. In the Singapore model, however, this information is provided through the SMS facility on cell phones also.

The government has already allowed serving summons through email. And the e-court will add to it by serving notices, delivering certified copies of court orders through email.

But there is cynicism in the legal circles regarding the effectiveness of sending summons through email.

"Unless there is a mechanism like in e-greeting cards to show that the person who has been e-mailed the summon has opened it, how would it be proved that the person has received and read the summon?" wonders Sarika Verma, an Internet savvy lawyer. Then, there are cases where a whole family or an organisation knows a particular password. "How would it be proved that only the addressee opened the emailed summon?" Verma asks.

In a recent seminar on judicial reforms, chaired by the chief justice of India, the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association made a detailed presentation on the electronic filing system. It has been termed as Case, Judgement, Information, Statutes Management System (CJIMS).

The proposal includes assigning an electronic ID and a password to each advocate on record. It is to this ID that all communication could be made by the Supreme Court registry or administration.

It suggests that once the advocate files a petition, if there are any defects in it, he will get an email from the registry. So would the judicial orders and other related documents be mailed to the advocate.

The petitions and judicial applications, however, cannot be emailed from just any cyber café, say court officials. Instead, the facility may be given to legal firms, which would have the proper infrastructure, they argue. It has, however, been proposed that the advocates on record would set up EFS kiosks at various places, for the use of its members.

The Challenges

But there are many obstacles to overcome before the virtual court becomes a reality. Firstly, there are various provisions of law, which need to be changed.

"Some of the provisions can be dealt with by the interpretation of the Supreme Court. The court can interpret the laws and include Internet as a mode of service," says P H Parekh, senior Supreme Court advocate.

Even if the need arises to make new laws to facilitate the establishment of the e-court, Parekh says, the court has the powers to do so. "But it can be delayed as on certain matters while for some areas legislation would be needed, which is a cumbersome process," he added.

If all the legal hassles are removed and work begins on the establishment of the e-court, technical experts say that to make it functional, it will take at least six months of work. And the effective working of an e-court would require availability of huge bandwidth with the users.

"Judicial documents are huge in size and include coloured maps and charts. That will make the sizes of the files really big and transmission from an ordinary Internet connection would be problematic," says a technical expert.

In the Singapore model, the legal firms create the entire data of the case in e-format for their clients. If the model is to be followed, then the Indian law firms need to train their staff accordingly.

The issue of the e-court fees also needs to be sorted out. In the prevailing system, all judicial documents have revenue stamps attached and the money goes to the government of India.

"But when they take to the e-format how would the money be collected. In Singapore they use credit cards," explains a lawyer. But credit cart penetration is poor in India, he points out.

But the most difficult question, however, is whether senior Supreme Court judges will be able to adapt. After all they have spent an entire career working on paper.

Says P H Parekh, who heads the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association, " Most of the elderly judges and advocates are not computer literate. But a beginning has to be made. To make the concept of an e-court, a success, the most important change needed would be that in the attitude of the people."

Additional Links:
-- Supreme Court of India
-- IndLaw
-- Laws in India
-- Lawyers Guide to India