December, 2020

Newsletter e-Committee,

Chief Justice of India Inaugurates e-Sewa Kendra at High Court of Tripura.

Justice S. G. Chattopadhyay, Judge, On 23 December 2020, the Chief High Court of Tripura, and Hon'ble Mr Justice of India, Hon'ble Mr Justice Justice Ajit Singh (Retd.), Lokayukta, Sharad Arvind Bobde, inaugurated the Odisha. The e-Sewa Kendra has been e-Sewa Kendra at the Tripura High established under the guidance of Court Registry in the presence of Hon'ble Dr Justice D Y Chandrachud, Hon'ble Mr Justice Akil Kureshi, Chief Chairperson, e-Committee. The e- Justice of High Court of Tripura, Sewa Kendra shall function as the Hon'ble Mr Justice S. Talapatra, first line of contact between the Chairperson, Computer Committee of litigants and judicial establishment to the High Court of Tripura, Hon'ble Mr e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 2

access eCourts Project-related to the advocates/litigants. Shortly, the services and legal aid. The e-Sewa eSewa Kendra shall be made Kendra is entirely paperless, equipped available virtually on the official with four counters, and each counter website of the High Court to render its has one all-in-one Desktop services to the litigants digitally. The Computers, high-speed scanners, and High Court has also taken up the LAN having access to CIS. The eSewa process to establish similar eSewa Kendra has a dedicated email id Kendras at all the Court Complexes of ([email protected]) for Tripura. sending electronic communications

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"Need to Create Accessible Legal Ecosystem with a Sense of Urgency," Dr Justice D Y Chandrachud writes to All Chief Justices

The Chairperson of the e-Committee the Constitution of India and the right addressed a letter to all the Chief to practice a profession of one's Justices of High Courts on 19 choice under Article 19(1)(g) of the December 2020, highlighting the urgent Constitution of India. need of transforming the court (b) It is imperative to note that Section infrastructure and digital ecosystem to 12 (4)(b) of the Rights of Persons enable lawyers and litigants with with Disabilities Act, 2016 ("2016 disabilities to participate in the legal Act') mandates that "The appropriate profession at an equal footing. The Government shall take steps to (b) Chairperson outlined several steps that ensure that the filing departments, can be taken to this effect and stressed registry or any other office of records the importance of having accessible are supplied with the necessary websites on an immediate basis. The equipment to enable filing, Storing, salient points covered in the letter are and referring to the documents and extracted below: evidence in accessible formats..." (a) The creation of accessible The High Courts can take certain infrastructure, including digital steps to make filings and their infrastructure, and an appropriate websites' more accessible. I request support system in the judiciary for you to undertake these steps with a lawyers and litigants with disabilities sense of urgency. Our work in this is imperative to create a level playing regard must be guided by two field. This obligation is a natural overarching principles. First, the corollary of the right to equality onus to make filings accessible guaranteed to lawyers and litigants cannot be placed on disabled with disabilities under Article 14 of e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 4

lawyers. This would be much like file, but only in Optical Character serving a file to a non-disabled Recognition (OCR) based PDF lawyer in a foreign language and format. After that, all the PDFs can placing the onus on them to translate be aggregated and uploaded. For it into English. Instead, we must documents that do need to be ensure that we institutionalize scanned, it must be ensured that the systems that embed accessibility for scan is of high quality, with 300 dots all times to come. Second, instead of per inch at least, so that all the requiring a disabled lawyer to seek characters can be clearly made out case-by-case intervention or having by the talking software used by the a separate system just for them, we visually challenged. have to ensure that existing filing (iii) Further, stamps and watermarks practices are reconfigured to take should not be placed on the page in account of their needs. I have a way that hampers smooth access. outlined below the specific steps that This is a crucial intervention. The need to be taken: watermarks used by many High (i) Instead of printing and scanning Courts on certified copies of their submissions, lawyers should be judgments make the text difficult to required to file PDF documents. The read even for persons without visual pleadings made in Microsoft word challenges. can easily be saved as PDF files. (iv) We have to devise a practice of The current practice of printing and using digital signatures, or requiring scanning documents is a futile and signatures only on the last page of time-consuming process that does paper-books, in order to ensure that not serve any purpose. lawyers do not feel compelled to (ii) If there are hard copy annexures print and then scan paper-books that need to be made part of the because of the signature paper book, these can be scanned. requirement. They must then be saved as a PDF e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 5

(v) We must also ensure that court be accessible to visually websites become more accessible challenged persons. for disabled lawyers. The following ❖ PDFs are, overall, not user steps can be undertaken to make the friendly for visually challenged High Court websites more users. Therefore, The High accessible: Courts should consider releasing ❖ Wherever entering visual judgements in HTML format on captchas is a requirement to their websites, along with their access any information, audio PDF equivalent. captchas must also be provided. ❖ Court websites must have Such audio must be clear the Clearly labelled buttons, and audio captcha deployed on the calendars to select dates must be Supreme Court website is a good accessible. This can be done by example of a functional audio using a regular edit box for captcha. entering a date, month, and year, ❖ Judgments/orders are instead of using read-only boxes. sometimes inaccessible due to An example of such a regular the placement of watermarks on accessible box is the box that one each page which must be done is presented with for entering the away with. date on http://www.main.sci.gov.in, ❖ Further, judgements in PDF after clicking judgments' and format should be auto tagged to 'judgment date'.

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First High Court Workshop on NJDG conducted by Madhya Pradesh High court

Court of Madhya Pradesh Shri Sanjay On 7 December 2020, the first-ever Yadav and Hon'ble Shri Justice S.C. High Court level workshop for High Sharma, Chairman Computer Court Judges on the usage of the Committee, High Court of Madhya NJDG portal as a court and case Pradesh, conducted the workshop. management tool was held by the The workshop commenced with the Madhya Pradesh High court through opening remarks of Hon'ble Justice video conferencing. The Chairperson Sanjay Yadav. Ms R Arulmozhiselvi, of the e-Committee addressed a letter Member (H.R.) of the e-Committee, dated 13 August 2020 to all Chief Supreme Court of India, gave the Justices for getting all the High court presentation on the various features judges and members of Computer of NJDG and how it can be used as a Committees of High Courts court and case management tool. Mr acquainted with the services available Ashish Shiradhonkar, HOD e-Court’s on NJDG. project, NIC, Pune, gave a live demo Based on the said Chairperson's of the various NJDG features. letter, the Acting Chief Justice of High e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 7

e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 8

Patna High Court organizes NJDG Workshop for acquainting High Court Judges on NJDG.

On 16 December 2020, Patna High Committee. A live demo followed this Court held the workshop on NJDG for on the NJDG by Mr Ashish J. all High Court Judges. The Patna High Shiradhonkar, HOD e-Court’s project. Court conducted the workshop under The various topics of NJDG on Query the aegis of the e-Committee. It Builder, Delay Reason, Generation commenced with the opening remarks Reports, Pendency data, Judge wise of Hon'ble Chief Justice Sanjay Karol. Disposal, Return Report and An introductory presentation on NJDG Establishment Report were covered in as a court and case management tool the workshop. The queries of the was given by Ms R. ArulmozhiSelvi, judges were addressed at the end of Member, Human Resources, e- the session. e-Committee Newsletter, December 2020 9

Orissa's Every District Court Complex gets e-Sewa Kendra

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