Herausforderung Informationsgesellschaft:
Die Anwendung moderner Technologien im Zivilprozess und anderen Verfahren

Gefördert mit EU - Mitteln aus dem GROTIUS Programm

THE CHALLENGE OF INFORMATION SOCIETY:
APPLICATION OF ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES IN CIVIL LITIGATION AND OTHER PROCEDURES

I. INTRODUCTION

In India process of introducing advanced technologies in civil litigation and other procedures has been slow. However, within the last few years there has been a great consciousness and concern for introducing such technology so that the monster of mounting arrears of court cases may be contained through more efficient functioning of the judicial system. The steps taken or proposed to be taken in this direction are discussed in this report.

II. INDEXING OF CASES

In order to have quick disposal of cases, indexing has been done in Supreme Court an various High Courts so as to allot a common code to identical types of cases. The criterion of identity has reference to the similarity of essential facts of the case. Sometimes cases are simultaneously listed before court with further consideration of the fact that they are covered on point of law by same binding precedent.

III. COMPUTERISATION OF CASES IN REGISTRY

In most of the High Courts and in the Supreme Court the Registry is ported on computers though in its present status it is limited to Word Processing only in which a typed record for all the cases instituted, pending and disposed of is being mantained. One can get the correct stage of any case instituted or pending, for example, one can know when the case was instituted, against which decision/ notification / order, etc., and by whom the Parties concerned are represented. Besides this, one can know on which date the case was listed earlier and what is its next date. Cause-lists are also being generated on computers for next day's cases.

IV. CASE-LAW INFORMATION NETWORK

Steps have been taken by various High Courts to get connected to the Central Computing System and database of the Supreme Court through V-SAT (Very Small Aperture Terminals) based on TDMA technology. For this specific purpose the infrastructure of National Informatics Center is being utilised which has got a Central Hub located at New Delhi and has got an online connectivity through satellite. In this network presently every district headquarters is connected through V-SAT. This system is serving as an effective tool for flow of information regarding case-law of the Supreme Court and various High Courts.

It is expected and proposed also that the same information network will soon be spread effectivly throughout the subordinate judiciary also.

V. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN RELATED DEPARTMENTS

Efforts are also being made to introduce technological advancements to departments directly related to civil litigation and other procedures. Law departments of states are also resorting to computer based functioning so as to bring greater efficiency and rationalisation of their work. For example, it is proposed in a Law Department of a state to install Pentium based Computer Systems with Simple Office Application Programmes and Native (Hindi) language Word Processors for simple information storage and data retrieval at different stages in the Law Department and Ministry of Law.

VI. TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCES IN OTHER PROCEDURES

Technological advancement in investigative procedures on the side of Criminal Law has been much more. In forensic science investigative technologies, like electron microscopy, spectroscopy, T.L.C., H.P.T.L.C., G.L.C., H.P.L.C., D.N.A. tests, use of advanced radiation equipments, cameras, D.T.As, digitisers, X.R.F. technique, etc., as also the Mass Spectrometry, digital video based tracking systems, are being employed.

Computerised data storage and querying techniques with highly sophisticated data comparison facility is being employed for crime detection.

VII. SUPPORTIV ADVANCEMENTS

Various Acts of Parliament and Rules framed thereunder are made available by various publishers in a database form on floppies and CD-ROM.

Case-law reported by some major law publishers since 1950 onwards is available on CD-ROM in a very advanced form of Windows based application software with highly specialised search engines and help devices built within the software with very efficient sorting and printing options. It is also cross-indexed in a manner which enables users to search databases related to any date, case, Act, Court, year (or specific period) or cross references to similar cases with reference marks.

Bei Fragen und Unklarheiten wenden Sie sich bitte an: [Prof. Dr. Helmut Rüßmann].
Stand: 10. March 2000.