Three apps launched to speed up court proceedings

New Delhi: In order to ease pressure on filing counters and speed up work flow processing in courts, three new apps -- e-filing, e-pay, and National Service and Tracking of Electronic Processes(NSTEP) -- were launched by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Thursday.

The apps were launched during an event at the Supreme Court under the eCourts project to enable litigants, lawyers and other stake holders to avail these services, a statement said here.

Union Law and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also released brochures to increase awareness about eCourt initiatives and user manuals on the applications and services provided under eCourts Project.

The eCourts project were developed under the guidance of Justice M B Lokur, Judge in-charge, eCommittee, Supreme Court.

With the eFiling application at efiling.ecourts.gov.in, online registration of lawyers and litigants can be done. Through the application, one can file cases from any part of India to any court on registration. Portfolio management of cases of litigants and lawyers is provided on this portal and one can get updates from time to time about filed cases, cases under objection or rejected cases. The facility of eSign is also provided for those who cannot afford purchasing token for making digital signatures.

The ePay application at pay.ecourts.gov.in is a unified portal wherein facility to pay online court fees is provided. At present, the facility will be made operational in Maharashtra and Haryana only. The application is beneficial to judicial administration since verification of court fees is more easy, secure and transparent and accurate figures of court fees collected can be generated for any court, district or state.

NSTEP would address delays in process serving particularly for processes beyond jurisdiction. The service will inform about status of service and will entail litigants to take immediate follow up action which will reduce delays. The status of service can also be tracked on public portal.

The eCourts Mission Mode Project Phase I was implemented during 2011-2015; wherein Rs 639.41 crores was released for computerisation of district and subordinate courts. Under the Phase II, Rs 1078 crore has been released till date against the financial outlay of Rs 1670 crore.(UNI)