Minister of Law & Justice Kiren Rijiju stressed on development of e-Courts to enhance judicial productivity--qualitatively and quantitatively

While addressing a gathering of Ministers of Justice from SCO Member States through video conferencing on Friday, Minister of Law & Justice Kiren Rijiju talked about the e-Courts Project which aims at transforming the judicial system of the country by ICT enablement of courts and enhance the judicial productivity, both qualitatively and quantitatively for making the justice delivery system accessible, cost effective, transparent, accountable, efficient and time bound.

He said the services under the project cater to all key stakeholders including the judiciary, high courts, district & subordinate courts, and the citizens/litigants/lawyers/advocates.

e-Courts Project was conceptualized as a Mission Mode Project of the Government of India, as a part of the National e-Governance Plan based on the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of Information and Communication Technology in the Indian Judiciary, established after long-standing efforts of the Central government during the difficult times of Covid 19 Pandemic and helped the courts to perform all the task of justice delivery in virtual mode.

The project has been under implementation since 2007 under the joint partnership of the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India and the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India.

Law & Justice Minister Kiren Rijiju also highlighted the Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, which offers a faster, transparent and accessible option to the citizens of the country.

As part of activities of the Justice Ministers’ Forum, Minister Rijiju congratulated all Ministers of the SCO Member States for their efforts towards achieving the goals of the SCO and assured India’s full cooperation in the future as well. Also, in this emerging era of digitization and new possibilities,

He called upon all the SCO partners to commit to promoting technology in all fields and adopting, developing new mechanisms like ADRs in the Legal System of all the SCO Member States. Earlier, the Experts Working Group discussed issues related to the provision of legal services to individuals and/or legal entities, and stressed on the need for the development of information technologies in the provision of services.

Apart from India’s Minister of Law and Justice, the video meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Justice of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mukanova Alma Kairatovna, Minister of Justice of the People's Republic of China, Tan Yijun, Deputy Minister of Justice of the Kyrgyz Republic, Baktiyar Saipidinovich Orozov, Minister of Law and Justice of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Senator Azam Nazir Tarar, First Deputy Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation, Evgeny Leonidovich Zabarchuk, Minister of Justice of the Republic of Tajikistan, Ashurien Muzaffar Kurbonmukhammad and Minister of Justice of the Republic of Uzbekistan, Tashkent Akbar Dzhurabayevich.

The meeting was also attended by Deputy Secretary General of the SCO Ashimov Erik Sarsebekovich.