Justice D Y Chandrachud of the Supreme Court urged for the digitization of judicial procedures on Wednesday, claiming that the delay in communicating bail rulings to jail officials is a “very significant shortcoming” that “touches upon the human liberty” of every defendant and inmate. This would also assist us in ensuring that bail orders are sent to the prisons as soon as they are issued, from wherever they are issued, for rapid execution,” Justice Chandrachud remarked.
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According to jail officials, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan’s son, Aryan Khan, spent an additional day in jail after being granted bail by the Bombay High Court because his release orders did not arrive in time at the bail box outside the Arthur Road Jail. Because this affects the personal liberty of everyone who is awaiting trial, or even a prisoner who has been granted a stay of execution.”
“We are still looking to the sky for pigeons to send commands in this age of information and communication technology,” the CJI had noted at the time. In September, the Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to adopt FASTER, a method for electronic communication of its orders (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records).
“The reason we need e-Sewa Kendra is because of the digital gap in India,” Justice Chandrachud said on Wednesday, referring to the need for e-Sewa Kendras. A huge portion of the population does not have personal computer access, yet cellphones are becoming commonplace even in rural regions. However, there is a significant digital divide, and the bar’s members are indicative of society as a whole.” He emphasized the importance of virtual courts, noting that they had been established in 12 states to adjudicate traffic challans.
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“Now, you can see that spending a day away from daily work to travel to court to pay for a traffic challan is not productive for an ordinary citizen who has a traffic challan. On the other hand, if virtual courts are linked to a nationalised bank where challans may be paid online, the citizen benefits,” the judge observed. He also advocated for the use of ICT to address the issue of the enormous number of outstanding cases, noting that approximately three crore criminal cases are now languishing in district courts. We may also take advantage of information and communication technologies in this situation. This is what the Supreme Court’s e-committee is now working on,” he remarked.
