E-courts in India or e-judiciary in India has been in media corners since 2003. However, till now India does not have even a single e-court. While India is busy in press releases claiming opening of e-courts other countries are actually implementing the required measures in this direction. One such court is the Georgia Court of Appeal.
Although e-filing has not yet reached the Georgia Supreme Court, the Georgia Court of Appeals announced yesterday the creation of its EFAST system, which allows members of the Georgia Bar to file briefs electronically. Registration and other information about the new program is available at the Court of Appeals’ website. The impressive aspect about this announcement is the “ability” to file cases electronically.
According to Praveen Dalal, the leading Techno-Legal Expert of India and Managing Partner of Perry4Law no court can claim itself to be an e-court till cases are filed, processed and adjudicated electronically. Without these crucial capabilities, the other measures are just attempts to “computerise” the court’s traditional and ancillary functions, says Dalal.
Now it is abundantly clear that India has in the past claimed opening of many e-courts but till now not even a single case has been delat with electronically. This is because there is no e-court hence there cannot be any disposal of the same electronically.
The Delhi High Court has declared that it is going to open an e-court on 8th December, 2009. It would be interesting to see whether the same would be “another e-court” as claimed to be opened earlier or would it be a real one?
SOURCE: MERINEWS
