Jahanvi Agarwal
On 14th September 2023, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi applauded the Supreme Court for linking its case management data on active and closed cases to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), mentioning that this would increase judicial transparency and improve the nation’s system for providing justice.
The information on case disposal with in-depth charts and graphs will be made available for the first time on NJDG, a flagship project under the eCourts objective that up until now only included data pertaining to trial courts and high courts.
The Supreme Court stated in a press release that:
“Now we have all three tiers of Indian judiciary on NJDG portal…On a click of a button, one may access case-related information, statistics such as institution, pendency and disposal of cases, case types, year-wise break-up of the Supreme Court of India.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X, formerly Twitter, that:
“Laudatory step by the Supreme Court and Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud ji. Such harnessing of technology will further transparency and enhance the justice delivery system in our country.”
Until now, information regarding the Supreme Court’s overall case backlog, case disposition rates, and the number of cases still outstanding before its five-judge, seven-judge, and nine-judge benches could be found there on a month-by-month basis.
It did not provide comparable data from prior years or charts or graphs showing the length of time it took to resolve cases. Now, the entire populace will have access to this data for research or any other use.
There are now 15,512 unregistered cases (where filing errors have not yet been fixed by solicitors) and 64,989 registered cases (both civil and criminal) before the Supreme Court. This number will be dynamic and updated on the website on a regular basis.
The Supreme Court’s website on the NJDG portal will also include up-to-date information on the number of cases filed and how many were ultimately resolved in a given month. In order to help the top court be held accountable, it will also provide information on the cases it hears and decides each year.
Any person can check the NJDG to see which cases have been resolved and which are still outstanding, as well as the types of cases involved, such as civil or criminal appeals, writ petitions, suo motu cases, contempt cases, transfer petitions, review petitions, etc.
The Supreme Court’s decision to integrate its data on NJDG comes only one day after the Union cabinet approved the infusion of a sizable corpus of $7,210 crore for the third phase of the eCourts project, led by the Supreme Court’s e-committee and presided over by the CJI.
A release issued by the Press Information Bureau states that:
“The main objective of eCourts Phase-III is to create a unified technology platform for the judiciary, which will provide a seamless and paperless interface between the courts, the litigants and other stakeholders.”