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The Indian judiciary, with its massive backlog of cases, could benefit from aids like video conferencing
That the Indian judicial system desperately needs to find a way to bring legal cases to their conclusion in a more efficient and timely manner cannot be disputed. Some estimates suggest that about 30 million cases remain pending in various courts across the country. Most cases drag on for several years, without reaching a conclusion. The appointment of judges to vacant posts is just one of the issues that require attention. In many cases, undertrials spend more time in jail than the period of punishment for their crime, if proved in court, would require. Litigants miss court dates, causing hearings to get repeatedly postponed. A work around to this could be to use technology to make the judicial process more streamlined.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday emphasised the importance of using technologies such as video conferencing to streamline the judicial process. If officials and litigants could appear in court via video conferencing links, it could save time, effort, and money. Litigants from other cities could be present at designated spaces in their city and appear in court anywhere in the country through video conferencing. Undertrials in jails could also use this system. Courts have already moved many filing systems to an online platform and some police departments even allow the filing of FIRs online, but much more needs to be done .
The setting up of fast-track courts, in order to ensure that undertrials do not spend more time in jail than the length of their possible sentence, would also be a reform worth considering. This would help clear up some of the backlog and free up much-needed space in jails, which are overcrowded and unhygienic. In a welcome move, three constitutional benches have been set up to hear important matters during the summer vacation. Chief Justice of India, Jagdish Singh Khehar pointed out that if judges work just five days in the summer vacation, thousands of more cases could be brought to their conclusion. But once again, given that the volume of pending cases runs into the tens of millions, it will take much more than three constitutional benches and five days in the summer holidays to make the judicial system significantly more time-efficient.