Budget: eCourts project gets Rs 1500 crore; digitisation records part of initiative

New Delhi: The law ministry’s eCourts project’s third phase, which seeks to upgrade the digital infrastructure of the lower judiciary, has been allocated Rs 1,500 crore in the Union Budget 2024-25. In September last year, the Union Cabinet had approved the third phase of the eCourts project as a central sector scheme with a financial outlay of Rs 7,210 crore. To be implemented over four years, the third phase will see digitisation of all court records, both legacy and pending cases, at an estimated cost of Rs 2,038.40 crore. A total of 3,108 crore documents will be digitised, official sources had earlier said.

As part of the third phase, the system will be migrated to cloud technology and the cost estimated for providing 25 petabytes of storage (according to existing requirement) is Rs 1,205.20 crore.

The project also seeks to establish and expand the scope of virtual courts for hearing cases by creating a robust digital infrastructure.

The sources had said Rs 413.08 crore is the cost estimate for the establishment of 1,150 virtual courts.

As part of the National eGovernance Plan, the eCourts project is under implementation since 2007 for making the Indian judiciary information and communications technology enabled. The second phase of the project concluded last year. The main objective of the project’s third phase is to create a unified technology platform for the judiciary which will provide a seamless and paperless interface between courts, litigants and other stakeholders.