Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Feb 27: At a time when much thrust is laid on the use of information and communication technology in every sphere, the fate of e-courts Mission Mode Project conceptualized by the Supreme Court of the country has failed to fully take off in Jammu and Kashmir despite huge expenditure on installation of hardware and Local Area Network.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that e-courts Integrated Mission Mode Project, one of the national e-governance projects, was conceptualized by the Apex Court for implementation in High Courts and District/Subordinate Courts of the country.
The objective of the e-courts project was to provide designated services to litigants, lawyers and the judiciary by universal computerization of District and Subordinate courts and enhancement of ICT enablement of the justice system.
Under Phase-I of this project, hardware and Local Area Network (LAN) were installed in large number of District and Subordinate Courts of Jammu and Kashmir since 2009 onwards excepting that of Magam Court in Budgam district and Jammu District Court Complex where hardware has not been installed till date due to some issues between National Informatics Centre (NIC) and HCL and Wipro, sources said. These two companies were selected for execution of technical task of hardware and LAN installation.
Out of such a large number of courts, the project took off in five areas—Srinagar, Baramulla, Anantnag, Udhampur and Kathua but the facility got snapped in Srinagar and Anantnag due to devastating floods of September last year when judicial infrastructure suffered extensive damage.
“Even facility is not presently working in Baramulla due to some technical issues, which are yet to be resolved by HCL”, sources said while disclosing that at present e-court facility is available only in Udhampur and Kathua.
Though authorities coordinating with the e-court committee of Supreme Court on behalf of Jammu and Kashmir High Court are claiming that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has failed to provide lease line facility to make the project functional in those courts where hardware and LAN have been installed, the Nigam authorities said, “there might be some problem on the part of those handling project in judiciary”.
General Manager of BSNL, Atul Sharma said, “we have given lease line to all the courts across the Jammu region except that of Samba where modem is not available with the concerned authorities of judiciary”. On the other side, Khalil Choudhary, Project Coordinator e-court High Court of J&K said, “despite repeated requests lease line has not been provided to majority of the courts till date and BSNL might have completed this exercise only in papers”.
“Whatever may be the reason but one thing is very clear that the project has failed to take off in Jammu and Kashmir and lack of coordination is the major reason behind the hanging fate of project, which otherwise is of immense benefit in the present scenario”, sources said.
They disclosed that even before functioning of the project, issues pertaining to the maintenance of the hardware have cropped up as Union Ministry of Law and Justice has asked the concerned authorities of J&K judiciary to take up the issue of funds required for extension of Annual Maintenance Contract (AMC) with the State Government.
“The State Government has not taken any decision till date”, sources added.
“Moreover, technical manpower required to run the project is also an issue which has not been given any serious thought till date”, sources said, adding “many courts lack trained manpower while as in others trained people engaged for the project are not getting salary on time ever since this aspect was asked to be taken care of by the State Government”.
Due to all these reasons, the objective of making functioning of courts efficient through Information and Communica-tion Technology has failed to yield any result vis-à-vis positive impact on the justice delivery system.
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