The e-Courts Project is a pan-India Mission Mode Project under the National e-Governance Plan, conceptualized to transform the Indian Judiciary through Information and Communication Technology (ICT) enablement of courts. It is monitored and funded by the Department of Justice, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India. The project originated from the National Policy and Action Plan for Implementation of ICT in the Indian Judiciary–2005, submitted by the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India. The core problem it addresses is enhancing judicial productivity and making the justice delivery system more affordable, accessible, and transparent.
The project has been implemented in phases, with Phase I beginning in 2007 and concluding in 2015, focusing on the computerization of 14,249 district and subordinate courts. Phase II, sanctioned in August 2015, continued the computerization and introduced features like the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), a database of orders, judgments, and cases from all computerized district and subordinate courts. The NJDG is a key mechanism, providing real-time case status information to litigants and lawyers via the ecourts.gov.in portal. Other mechanisms include the Case Information Software (CIS), the eFiling system for electronic submission of legal papers, and the use of Video-Conferencing (VC) facilities between courts and jails.
The project connects directly to the broader concept of e-Governance in India. Recently, the Phase III draft vision document has been finalized, which aims for a judicial system that is more affordable and accessible. This new phase emphasizes Digital and Paperless Courts, the expansion of Virtual Courts beyond traffic violations, and the use of emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis and digitization of an estimated 3.108 crore documents. The fundamental goal of ICT enablement and citizen-centric service delivery remains the same across all phases.