“Information Technology + Indian Talent = India Tomorrow”.
Once upon a time, we were taught during our school days that the necessities of life for humans to survive are food, clothing, and shelter. But with the changing time, I believe this list is to be edited. Today, the necessities are food, clothing, shelter, and Information Technology. It has become an inseparable part of our life. Today, it is hard to believe our existence without Information Technology. It is the most striking factor in changing the world in our era. It has profoundly changed the way large parts of humanity interact and communicate.
The technologies are developing day by day. The fast growth in the technological field has made the world a better and fast-moving place. The growth is due to the increase in applications of computers in almost every field. Information technology includes a combination of hardware and software used together. It is to perform the essential functions people need and use every day. It refers to the creation, gathering, processing, storage, presentation, and dissemination of information and also the processes and devices that enable all this to be done. Information technology is affecting us as an individual as well as a society.
IT in Judiciary
The role of information technology in the judiciary is also on the verge of increase. In 1990, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) of the Ministry of Information Technology start the process of computerization in the Supreme Court. Later NIC also took up computerization of all High Courts on the lines of Apex Court’s Computerization. This process has enabled the court administration to eliminate the manual processes like generating daily cause list; creating a database of details of fresh cases, disposed cases, and pending cases. Cases can be listed strictly in the chronological order of date of filling.
It has made it possible for the Courts to dispose of the cases faster. As the cases having the same point of law can be group and post before one bench through the use of this information technology. It has also become easier to recall dismissed cases when review petitions are filed. The use of information technology in Court administration has made the filing process hassle. Its free and reduce the irregularities in the management of cases. This has proved to be a backbone application of every Court.
The legal profession is a noble profession. The plight of a person practicing law can be deeply understood by the person in the same profession. This field requires to be mentally as well as physically active most of the time or even it would not be wrong to say ‘throughout the day’.
Research in legal profession
Mentally in the aspect of carrying research with regard to various aspects of law, the application of laws with quality drafting, giving the correct advice to clients, being updated with the current amendments taking place, and the position of the law in the country. And physically in the sense of attending the Court for hearing whether in the same city or other jurisdiction, running around the Courts to get applications or orders passed, getting updated on the pending matters, running around for clerical work as well like getting certified copies, getting stamp papers or paying stamp duties, taking print outs, handling of documents, etc.
Also it is a known fact that corrupt practices take place to get the work done. As there is a loss of patience to follow the procedure. The task of constantly being mentally and physically prepared in this type of system is genuinely very difficult. This difficulty can be reduced to a great extent by the use of Information Technology.
A well-structured database is the heart of court management, case management, and case-flow management. Several important databases need to be created to store the information captured in a systematic and meaningful manner. Nowadays such websites and mobile applications of Courts have been designe. They disseminate the necessary information relating to the filing status of the case. Also the stage, and the adjourned date of the case. Also, the orders and judgments are uploaded on these sites. Important notifications are also circulated in no time. Due to various applications develope to manage the cases of the advocate. It has become simple for the advocate to check the case status and manage the cases just with a click on their smartphone.
Future of court hearing
The physical presence of an advocate is not necessary all the time in the Court to follow-up an order or judgment. It can be simply downloaded from the verified Court application. Thus, unnecessary time spent on such time-consuming activities could be avoided. Apart from the advocate, it is possible for the Judge equip with necessary information. It is to take appropriate action, to move a case forward, or to assign it, list it for trial, or take whatever action is appropriate.
The concept of video-conferencing is also making its place in the judicial system. It is mostly used as an interface device between the prison facility and the Judge in the Courtroom. This technology vastly contributes cost saving which would have been spent on transport from the prison to Court. And also alleviate the security risk of the accused. If government officials and litigants could appear in court via secure video conferencing links, it could save everyone precious time, effort, and money. Litigants who require traveling from other cities to appear at court could be present at designated court spaces in their city and appear anywhere else in the country through video conferencing.
COVID-19 & IT
The importance of this technology has been best acknowledged during this phase of Covid-19 where the whole world is duty-bound to stay at home. For now, the most urgent matters are possible to be taken up before the Court through this technology of video-conferencing. As hearings of paramount importance would be carried out in the judicial system through video conferencing, the effectiveness of such video-conferencing technology also depends upon the level of security involved as vital data is to be shared. Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued an advisory stating that the ‘Zoom’ app for video conferencing is not a safe platform.
Also, a plea was filed in the Supreme Court against such foreign video conferencing apps like zoom, skype, etc. wherein a conclusion was formed that as the servers of such applications are foreign-based, there is a high possibility that privacy of the individuals and the secret information of our country would be at risk. Therefore, it is a dire need for our country to develop its video-conferencing application. This period of Covid-19, affirmatively, would act as a motivation to envision and act in the direction of developing Information Technology in our country to its highest level.
Drafting
The legal profession is based on drafting which is an essential part of an advocate’s practice. For proper drafting, the advocate should be well equipped with the law which requires quality research. There was a time when advocates used to handwrite pages of suit, refer various law books to research, and daily overload themselves with various paper documents and case files. Today, as Information Technology has developed, all these activities can be carried out on a portable electronic device such as a laptop.
Our country is governed by the highest number of laws. Without Information Technology, researching the applicability of such laws would have been problematic for advocates. But Information Technology has been of an advantage in unwinding the complexity of this task. Various applications are built which provide a huge database of such laws. The same has also simplified the finding of case laws as the applicability of relevant case laws has much weightage in the legal field. This big data could be explored anytime, from anywhere and it’s just a matter of a click.
Audio to text technology
Another technology which expanded recently is the audio to text technology. This technology converts one’s speech to text therefore minimizing the time taken to type or write. This technology would assist the advocates in drafting. Further, it would also assist the Judges to record statements and judgments on one hand and verify the same on the other without wasting time on dictation to the stenographer. With the use of Information Technology, the pace of proceedings may be speeded up considerably. The quality of the record is enhanced immensely as it is far more accurate. Cases ought to be resolved faster, both at trial, and on appeal. This would be the result of the easy availability of the record of the trial. With Judges freed from the task of recording proceedings, they can pay more attention to the function for which they are hired. And that is judging.
As we all know, that evidence forms a vital part of any case. The decision of the Court depends upon the evidence produced before it. Here too, Information Technology has not left its scope unextended. Evidence in the form of email, text messages, files, and documents extracted from hard drives, electronic financial transactions, audio, and video files form a part of digital evidence. To carry out analysis and investigation of this electronic evidence, a new branch of forensic science known as cyber forensics has come into existence. Through Information Technology it has become possible to develop investigation software to carry out analysis of fingerprints, voice, handwriting, blood samples, DNA, and other bodily substances for evidence gathering.
Advantages of IT
The use of Information Technology is quite effective and efficient in terms of time, energy, and money. In the long run, this technology has tremendous scope where daily business in the Court could be carried out. Where it would be possible for the advocates to electronically file the case before the Court or take out digital certified copies from the Court or the counsel for the litigant could conduct arguments without physically attending the Court, saving on cost, travel, and energy. This would indirectly contribute to the speeding up of the Court proceedings and avoiding unnecessary delays. Information Technology is inversely proportionate to corruption as the increased use of information technology will automatically reduce the scope of corruption.
In India, a huge number of cases are pending in the Courts. There is a vast difference between the ratios of filing of cases per day and cases disposed of per day. If cautiously used, Information Technology could play an effective role to minimize the gap between these ratios. The central idea of information technology ought to be the prevention of litigants from entering Courts. This could be made practical by settling the issue outside the Court itself. Here, ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) plays a vital role.
ADR
However, this ADR mechanism should be combined with cyberspace. This will make the path for Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) which uses technology to facilitate the resolution of disputes between parties. ODR primarily involves negotiation, mediation, or arbitration wherein innovative techniques are applied to resolve the dispute. The proceedings are conducted using various means for information exchange such as email, message, digitized documents, video conferencing, and teleconferencing. ODR is efficient, economical, non-confrontational, requires less physical meetings as well as less physical data storage.
The Information Technology used in the judicial system as it is judiciary friendly, should also be common man-friendly. Primarily, considering the layman, he is unaware of the legal process to be followed if he is faced with any wrong. For providing preliminary legal guidance, the concept of Legal Helpline could be evolved and brought into practice. In India, there is already a website in operation for reporting cyber frauds wherein the victim files the complaint and provides various details of the fraudster and the fraud committed. An online receipt is then generated for the same.
The said complaint is electronically transferred to the police station in whose jurisdiction the victim resides. This enables the victim to easily report the crime without facing any technical hassle related to jurisdiction. The same idea could be brought into effect with respect to registering of online First Information Report (FIR). This would crop up as a digital alternative to the ‘Zero FIR’.
Conclusion
In India, the procedure of Courts is known to be time-consuming which is true because our Courts follow the ‘Procedure established by Law’ model. Following due procedures tend to delay the proceedings. There is a famous saying, ‘Justice Delayed is Justice Denied’. Information Technology can play a crucial role in alleviating this delay by curbing the time taken in the procedure. The judicial system could take into consideration the service of summons and warrants in electronic format.
The maintaining of records of cases in digital format would reduce the time taken to spot the particular case file from the huge heap of cases. This would in the long run free up the Courtroom space which is stacked up with piles of files. In criminal practice, the Information Technology is capable of contributing to electronic monitoring and geological tagging of the criminals. India already has a well-developed database of Indian citizens in the form of AADHAR. This database could provide a helping hand to the law enforcement agencies in criminal investigation.
To effectively use Information Technology, apart from its application, the training and the security aspect should be equally focused on. Our Hon’ble Prime Minister has rightly stated that the future of India depends on “IT + IT = IT” formula and Indians have to adapt to the same. That is,
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