“Indian judicial system is 200 years behind compared to developed countries”, says Justice Krishna Iyer in his book ‘Law, Lawyers and Justice’. Time has come to put despair aside and take these kind of remarks as seeking opportunities to improve processes adjudication of plethora of pending and upcoming cases. For timely and fair mannered justice delivery, these processes need to be efficient, effective, and equitable.
It is timely to acknowledge the need of directly adopting tech solutions for empowering Indian judicial system as it requires fast processing and delivery mechanisms. AI, machine learning, natural language processing, digital sharing and record-keeping, etc. are some of the solutions that are already being explored and examined. “To explore the use of AI in judicial domain, the Supreme Court of India has constituted Artificial Intelligence Committee which has mainly identified application of AI technology in Translation of judicial documents; Legal research assistance and Process automation,” Law Minister Kiren Rijiju stated recently in Parliament conveying about implementation of phase two of the eCourts projects of the government.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one technology that has gained a lot of relevance in last couple of years with the government of India trying to incorporate it even in the day-to-day functioning of the three pillars of Indian Democracy. However small the percentage may be, making the procedures and functioning public is another bold attempt that will rightly help in taking masses in confidence and building a parallel bridge to digital connectivity and setup of an overall advanced working judicial system.
Another stepping stone towards this new-age judicial ecosystem was set with the launch of the AI-driven research portal SUPACE (Supreme Court Portal for Assistance in Courts Efficiency) last year. The portal deals with large chunks of case data through machine-learning. However, SUPACE does not participate in decision-making as its AI mechanisms are focused on collection and analysis of data. “We are not going to let AI spill over to decision-making… It fully retains the autonomy and the discretion of the judge in deciding the case, though at a much, much faster pace because of the readiness with which the information is made available by the AI,” former CJI SA Bobde had said while launching the portal.
Apart from tech solutions, efforts are also being invested in enabling greater digital connectivity and better focus on easy and secured usage of electronic data and record-keeping. Ensuring the same, CJI N.V. Ramana has launched ‘Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records’ or FASTER, a digital platform that will assist court officials to instantly send e-copies of the orders through a secured electronic communication channel to intended parties. This was followed by the launch of a new divyang-friendly website by the department of justice, providing all citizens with a one-stop platform for all digital initiatives of the Justice Department. This will allow public to view High Courts judgements and orders, view case status, settle traffic violations, and even view Live streaming of court proceedings of High Courts of Gujarat, Orissa, Karnataka, Jharkhand, Patna and MP. The website will also keep other important information for public about eCourts Mission Mode Project, appointment of Judges, fast-track special Courts, Nyaya Bandhu, Gram Nyayalaya, DISHA scheme, Tele Law, etc.
Amidst ongoing debates on right manner to address judicial inefficiencies by extending working hours, reducing public holidays, setting up more courts, appointing more judges, filling up the vacancies etc, Technology adoption is surely looking like the winner. Further, changes in laws and social structure are easier to incorporate in these tech solutions.
SHARE
