Delay in communication of bail order must be addressed on a war footing: Justice Chandrachud

We should address on a war footing the delay in communication of bail orders because this touches upon human liberty of every undertrial or even a convict who has got suspension of sentence under the law, he says

PRAYAGRAJ Pointing out very serious deficiency in the criminal justice system, Supreme Court Judge, Justice DY Chandrachud, said, “We should address on a war footing the delay in the communication of bail orders because this touches upon human liberty of every undertrial or even a convict who has got suspension of sentence under the law.”

Virtual courts have now been set up in 12 states for adjudicating traffic challans. Across the country, 99.43 lakh cases have been completed and fines have been collected for 18.35 lakh cases, said Justice Chandrachud. (Pic for representation)

Justice Chandrachud, who is the chairperson of the e-committee of the Supreme Court, was speaking at the e-inauguration of virtual courts and e-sewa kendra at Allahabad high court and district court on Monday.

Explaining the importance of e-seva kendras, Justice Chandrachud said they would provide under one roof all services, which we provide under the e-courts project, accessible in every establishment of the district judiciary so that lawyers, litigants who seek to find information can easily avail of those services, whether it is providing certified copy or e-payment of court fees or e-filing or videoconferencing.

“The virtual court is equally a matter of utmost importance. To give you an example, virtual courts have now been set up in 12 states for adjudicating traffic challans. Across the country, 99.43 lakh cases have been completed and fines have been collected for 18.35 lakh cases. Total fine collected is over ₹119 crore while about 98,000 violators chose to contest the case,” he said.

Regarding digitisation of records and e-filing, Justice Chandrachud said, “It was with this perspective that as chairperson of the e-committee of the Supreme Court, I constituted a committee of five of our most senior high court judges across India to engage with renowned experts in private sector and public institutions, for the purpose of preparing a standard operating procedure on digitisation. After we got the draft SOP, it has been circulated to all the high courts. We got wonderful suggestions.”

Further, the e-committee is appointing a pan India consultant for the purpose of guiding us in the implementation of the SOP of digitisation,” he said.

Others present on the occasion were Chief Justice of Allahabad high court Rajesh Bindal, Justice SP Kesarwani, chairman of Computerization of Digitization Committee of Allahabad high court and other members of the committee.