Digital push to bring lower courts online as part of SC’s e-courts project

The government expects to bring online connectivity to 2,992 more district and lower courts across the country by the year-end as part of the Supreme Court-monitored ‘e-courts’ project aimed at improving access to justice through digitisation, according to data released by the law ministry. Of these, 547 court complexes — mainly lower courts that are often the first point of litigation — still have no digital connectivity, the data shows. Further, the survey states that the average pendency of civil suits at the Delhi high court is 5.84 years, while at lower courts of Delhi, it is 3.66 years. Under the latest phase of the e-courts programme, the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will connect subordinate courts with ‘wide area network’ connectivity or WAN at a cost of ₹167 crores.