ICT Initiatives – Patna High Court

E-Filing

• E-Filing of cases started for the first time in Patna High Court on 29^th May 2020. E-filing of 1,46,458 cases have been done on fling portal of Hon'ble Patna High Court including Test and Live Server. The total number of Ld. advocates registered on filing portal is 3450.
• Temporary AOR numbers were provided to facilitate e-filing of cases by non-AOR’s whereby, 1,360 Ld. Advocates registered themselves. 

Video Conference Hearings

• Hearing of cases by way of Studio Based Video Conference was started on 19^th March 2020, making Patna High Court the first High Court to do so
• On 11^th April 2020, a Special Help Line Service was started on for technical assistance to lawyers in joining court proceedings through Video Conference.
• From 12^th May, 2020 onwards, all the Courts of Patna High Court started virtual hearing of cases making Patna High Court the first Hon'ble High Court of India to do so.
• Since 24^th March, 2020 till today i.e., 4.02.2022, 1,42,745 cases have been instituted, 1,95,492 cases have been heard and 96,583 cases have been disposed of in Hon'ble High Court. The data has also been reflected on the official website of Patna High Court. Similarly, District Courts of Bihar have heard 7,78,764 Remand Cases and 6,93,325 Regular Cases during the pandemic period mostly through Virtual mode.
• “Microsoft Teams” Video Conferencing Software has been provided to all the Judicial Officers of the Bihar for e-hearing of proceedings through Video Conferencing in view of Covid-19 Pandemic situation.
• “Microsoft Teams” and “Cisco Web-ex” Software have been provided to all the Hon’ble Judges of this High Court for ehearing of proceedings through Video Conferencing in view of Covid-19 Pandemic situation.
• On 8^th October 2020 “Studio Based e-Courts” were made functional in Patna High Court. The facility extended to District Courts as well, with two “Studio Based e-Courts” in each District and one in each Sub-Division of the State of Bihar to facilitate the Virtual Court proceedings and narrow down the Digital Divide.

Listing

• From 27^th April, 2020 onwards, Physical Cause List has been discontinued and e-Cause List has been initiated for the stakeholders.
• Case Bank Concept was implemented which enabled listing of Never Ever Listed 45000 cases (approx.)
• Consolidated list of cases more than thirty years old was published, to be taken up for consenting parties through virtual mode.
• E-Mentioning of cases through email for listing and hearing of urgent matters started.

Integrated Criminal Justice System(ICJS)

• In June, 2020, ICJS (Integrated Criminal Justice System) has been implemented in all Districts and we are able to consume more than 80,000 FIRs and Charge Sheet data in CIS application of all 894 Police Stations. All 59 prisons and 3 FSLs are also integrated with ICJS.

Juvenile Justice

• On 11^th July, 2020, a National level e-Webinar has been organised by the Juvenile Justice Secretariat, Patna High Court which covered important topics related with subject.
• Several Online sensitisation programme have been organised thereafter by the Juvenile Justice Secretariat, Patna High Court for the stakeholders of POCSO and Children Court.

Website

• Websites of Juvenile Justice Secretariat (JJS), Bihar Judicial Academy (BJA), High Court Legal Services Committee, Patna (HCLSC) and Bihar State Legal Services Authority (BSLSA) have been developed and hosted on their respective URL’s. The special tabs are also available on the website to access the same.
• In October a Biometric Attendance System has been initiated and Officers & Staff Management Information System has been inaugurated for effective administration.
• Website of Hon’ble Patna High Court made transparent and user friendly by providing special links accessible to all, for – 
  • Judicial orders passed during pandemic
    Status of Criminal Stamp Reporting and Civil Stamp
    Reporting.
    Status regarding Covid-19 testing in High Court.
    Status of Mentioning Slips filed.
    Status of total e-filing, hearing and disposal.

NSTEP

• On August, 2020, the facility of NSTEP has been enabled in District Courts to enable real time tracking of service of notices and summons by Courts. 340 Smart phones for Process Servers/Bailiffs have been procured and total 44,700 NSTEP Summons have been Consumed and 19,003 have been delivered in various Judgeships of Bihar. 

Live-Streaming

• On 28th February 2021 - New Annexe building of the Hon’ble High Court - “Centenary Building” has been inaugurated by the then Hon'ble Chief Justice of India Hon’ble Justice Sharad A. Bobde and the entire inauguration programme has been live-streamed and the link was also made available on the official website of the Patna High Court. Doordarshan has also made direct telecast of the entire programme.
• Live streaming of the Court Proceedings has started on 10/12/2021 without spending a single penny utilising the Hardware and expertise of Technical Team under the guidance of Hon'ble the Chief Justice. The Court Proceedings of 3 Hon'ble Courts, including two Division Benches have been live streamed on daily basis on YouTube channel of Patna High Court.

E-Sewa Kendra

• On March, 2021- e-Sewa Kendras have been established at Patna High Court, Patna Civil Court, Bettiah (West Champaran) and Bedauli, Lakhnaur Panchayat (Masaurhi). Further, e-Sewa Kendra has also been made functional at Vaishali, Siwan and Nalanda Districts. A Virtual Display Wall has also been installed in the eSewa Kendra for the digital Display of Case Status in all the Court Rooms of the Hon'ble High Court Patna. 

E-Payment

• On 2nd June, 2021, ePayment facility for online Courts Fee payment has been enabled for Hon’ble High Court and the District Courts with successful integration with OGRAS. 3552 e-transactions have already taken place amounting to Rupees 5,25,820/- as on 03.02.2022.

National Judicial Data Grid

• 11,71,733 Judgements and Orders of Hon’ble Court uploaded on the National Judicial Data Grid site (NJDG) and the same are also available on https://judgments.ecourts.gov.in/pdfsearch/index.php.
• Delay reason in pending cases (more than 2 year) has been completed about 96% on the NJDG site and a mechanism for monitoring on regular basis has also been initiated by involving the Nodal Officers in each District.
• On 01-12-2021, on the basis of initiative taken by Hon'ble the Chief Justice, a Live online demonstration of NJDG has been done by Mr. Ashish J Shiradhonkar, HOD(eCourts), NIC Pune, where all Hon'ble Judges of this Court and more than 1360 members of District Judiciary participated. This has spread the working knowledge regarding the functionality of NJDG.

E-Lok Adalat

• On 12th December 2020 - E-Lok Adalat organized in the District Courts of Bihar in which 40655 Pre-Litigation Cases and 4605 pending cases disposed.
• On 10th July 2021 – 31,091 Pre-Litigation Cases and 8,593 pending cases of District Courts disposed in e-National Lok Adalat.

Digitization

• About 19,000 files containing more than 15 Lakh pages of pending cases have been digitized to facilitate Virtual Court hearings during the Pandemic period. A WhatsApp Group for daily monitoring of Digitisation Work has also been formed. The digitised files of pending cases are uploaded on the special portal available on the website and each Hon'ble Court and Court Master attached with the Hon'ble Court has been provided special password to access such documents online. The Technical Assistants attached with the Court Masters have been trained to prepare a master e-Document to facilitate the functioning of the eCourts. 

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Source : e-Committee, Supreme Court of India