e-Courts Project Transforms India's Judiciary with Digital Revolution

e-Courts Mission Mode Project speeds up disposal of cases

New Delhi, Aug 7

It highlights that over 753 crore pages of court records have been digitised, while thousands of e-Sewa Kendras are helping bridge the digital divide by expanding access to judicial services. Together, these reforms are making the justice system faster, more transparent, and more accessible to everyone.

India's judiciary, which serves over a billion people, has long relied on paper records and brick-and-mortar infrastructure. Many citizens incurred excessive travel and other expenses visiting courts and other establishments for their matters and documents.

This archaic system made the delivery of justice slow, cumbersome and expensive for the people it served. The e-Courts Mission Mode Project which is now in its third phase, has transformed the judicial system using technology.

Phase I (2011-2015) laid the foundation of this Mission, by computerising over 14,000 courts and building basic network infrastructure needed to support technology-enabled judicial services.

Phase II (2015-2023) built on this with a range of citizen-centric services, introducing the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), eFiling, and eSewaKendras (a physical help desk providing digital court services).The phase also expanded video conferencing infrastructure more than fivefold, significantly enhancing virtual access to judicial proceedings, said the factsheet.

The project is now in its third phase (2023-2027). This phase envisions a transition towards digital, paperless and more intelligent courts through large-scale digitisation of records, wider use of virtual hearings, deeper interoperability across justice institutions and adoption of emerging technologies including Artificial Intelligence (AI), analytics and Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

Previously, citizens and lawyers had to file court documents - such as complaints, written statements, replies and other applications - in person. The e-Filing system now removes this need, allowing documents to be filed online from anywhere. To make justice more inclusive, it supports English as well as regional languages, and works across District Courts, High Courts and the Supreme Court.

The E-filing system provides for online payments, online submission of Vakalatnamas, and E-signing of documents. Since its inception till June 30, 2026, more than 1.25 crore cases have been filed through the e-filing platform while the e-payments system has processed transactions worth Rs 1,404 crore in court fees and Rs 75 crore in fines, the factsheet states.

It underlines that crores of older court records are also being digitised under Phase III of the mission. This helps preserve valuable records from physical damage and makes retrieval and research faster and more efficient. Litigants, lawyers, witnesses, and other stakeholders can now participate in hearings remotely through video conferencing. This has eliminated the need for travel, enabling easier access to courts across cities and states and improving access to justice

Video conferencing facilities have been expanded across 7,553 establishments including courts, jails and hospitals. Courts across the nation have conducted over 4.18 crore remote hearings through this method.

Livestreaming of court proceedings is operational in 11 High Courts. As many as 31 Virtual Courts have also been established to enable online adjudication of traffic challans - virtual courts have received 11.33 crore challans amounting to Rs. 1,135.79 crores, the factsheet states.

Nyaya Shruti, launched in 2024 under the Inter-operable Criminal Justice System, enables accused persons, witnesses, police officials, prosecutors, scientific experts, and prisoners to appear and testify virtually via video conferencing - saving time and resources while speeding up case resolution, it added.

— IANS