Why in News?

• To provide efficient and time-bound access to the Courts services to litigant public, who are on the other side of the digital divide and don’t have access to internet, the Department of Justice has decided to deliver eCourts services to them through around 2 lakh Common Service Centres (CSCs).

Highlights:

• The rural reach of the CSC’s is extensive, envisaging a minimum of one CSC in each Gram Panchayat, thus enabling eCourts services to reach all corners of the country.
• The collaboration between Department of Justice and Common Service Centers would thus mean that litigants can access easily, and readily case status information available on eCourts database from any CSC.
• To ensure affordability, Department of Justice has decided not to charge any fee from the customers for eCourts related services delivered through CSC’s.

Significance of eCourts:

• The Government of India had initiated second phase of the eCourts project as one of the National e-Governance projects.
• Computerizing district and subordinate courts of the country through installation of case information software, hardware and local area network in courts.
• They are also being connected on Wide Area Network through a dedicated network offering bandwidth upto 100 Mbps.
• eCourts services have now been successfully rolled out through SMS, email, web, mobile app etc. benefiting millions of litigants and advocates.

Common Service Centres:

• Common Services Centre (CSC) programme is an initiative of the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India.
• CSCs are the access points for delivery of various electronic services to villages in India, thereby contributing to a digitally and financially inclusive society.
• They are positioned as change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods.