Introduction
The Chief Justice of India was introducing a neutral citation system while addressing the National Conference on Digitization in Odisha. The CJI urged the High Courts to keep adopting technology that allowed for hybrid hearings, emphasising that such facilities are not only intended to be used during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud, the judiciary and judges must embrace technology for the advantage of litigants and litigants cannot be burdened because judges are uncomfortable with technology.
He emphasised Although the infrastructure for video conferencing has been abandoned by some High Courts, it still exists. Not the infrastructure itself, but rather, are we using it? There were numerous PILs filed complaining that hybrid hearings have been suspended from lawyers throughout India. I beg the Chief Justices to remember that the infrastructure and technology were in place for COVID and other diseases as well, so please do not disband.
Recommendation and Suggestion
In light of the supreme court’s recent rollout of a new version of its e-filing platform, it asked AoRs and other individuals to come in groups after being informed about e-filing. The clerks and munshi are being trained, and they must not be left behind as technology advances. Before making e-filing mandatory for everyone, the plan is to have representative members of the bar complete all filings electronically.CJI emphasised that the supreme court exists for the sake of the entire nation and is not only intended for Delhi.
The CJI also discussed his goal of building virtual, paperless courts over the cloud. However, certain recent difficulties that happened as a result of the process’s live streaming were noted. There are videos of a Patna High Court judge questioning an IAS officer on why he wasn’t dressed appropriately. These are amusing videos, but they need to be restrained because the courts deal with serious issues. We have a new difficulty since live streaming interfaces with social media, thus we require a centralised cloud infrastructure. We require new court equipment.
He emphasised that although judges’ discretion will be required for things like sentencing, artificial intelligence (AI) techniques would be useful. Is it possible that the Supreme Court will have a record of 10,000 or 15,000 pages thanks to AI’s plethora of possibilities? How do you anticipate a judge to comprehend documents that are 15,000 pages long and include a statutory appeal?