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In a first, Odisha courts to have simultaneous video conferencing system with jails for faster trial
The ₹31-crore pilot project mooted by the high court to the state home department last week for the districts of Angul and Nayagarh is aimed at reducing pendency in lower courts.
Orissa High Court has proposed a first of its kind project in the country of simultaneous video-conferencing facilities in subordinate courts and corresponding jails through which accused can go on trial without coming to the courts physically.
The ₹31-crore pilot project mooted by the high court to the state home department last week for the districts of Angul and Nayagarh is aimed at reducing pendency in lower courts.
Once approved, it would mean the accused can be put on trial with a judge, witnesses and the lawyer on a single screen through a secure and dedicated network.
“It’s very innovative and probably the first time in India that we are planning to attempt such a thing. Under the present system of video conferencing in vogue in Odisha, only remand process happens through video conferencing while the accused have to physically come to court for trial,” Tanmany Mohanty, member secretary of the State Court Management System, said.
“But under the proposed system the accused need not come to the court even once. The entire trial would happen through a dedicated optic fibre network saving the police the headache of bringing the accused to court for each of the hearing,” Mohanty said.
Last month, Odisha’s law minister Pratap Jena told the state assembly that till October 31, the pendency in subordinate courts was 141,000 while Orissa High Court had a backlog of 150,000 cases.
The minister said the rate of case disposal has been decreasing over the years as 25 district-level judge positions were vacant in the lower judiciary.
Officials said the district judiciary is often bogged down with the logistics of transporting undertrials from jail premises to trial courts in the same area. The situation becomes worse when an undertrial is lodged in jail far away from the court where his case is being tried. There have been several cases in which the accused often flee the courtroom while being taken for the hearing.
Mohanty said the new project can speed up the process of trial, cut down on money and time involved in moving undertrials between jails and courts as well as the appearance of counsel and witnesses. It also means an improvement in the delivery of justice so that pendency of cases will be reduced to a considerable extent.
Senior police officials said the video conferencing facilities that are currently available in 43 subordinate courts in the state was largely non-functional due to bandwidth issues and lack of technical manpower.
The internet connectivity provided by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has been patchy in many places and the video-conferencing facility is used for remand purpose only.
“Under the present system of software-based video conferencing, only the proceedings relating to the remand of an accused lodged in jail is taken up one after another as per the roster of the courts under respective presiding officers. This has proved to be a time-consuming affair as the proceeding of one court is required to wait till completion of proceedings of another,” said a deputy inspector general police.
“The system has not been able to address the major problem of shifting the undertrials from jail to respective courts in a given court complex. Since trial proceedings pertaining to various cases go on simultaneously in different courts located in a court complex, a single video conferencing unit is not capable of meeting the required demand,” the official said.
The proposed video-conferencing system will involve setting up of internet protocol-based video conferencing system across the courts and jails of Angul and Nayagarh district.
The two districts were chosen for their higher number of undertrial prisoners compared to other districts.
Public sector undertaking RailTel Corporation of India will provide the hardware-based video conferencing system in 24 courtrooms and 24 jail rooms for uninterrupted transmission of data.
Officials said if the project becomes successful, then it would be scaled up in the rest of the state.
