New Delhi, April 11 Chief Justice of India Surya Kant said on Saturday that technology is no longer just a convenience for administration, but has become a constitutional instrument that strengthens equality before the law, expands access to justice, and allows the judiciary to overcome procedural rigidities.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the National Conference on Judicial Process Re-engineering and Digital Transformation, CJI Kant said that the core of any justice system is a simple but enduring promise that every individual, regardless of their means or circumstances, should have access to justice in a fair, timely, and effective manner.
Addressing the judges, judicial officers, and high court judges, CJI Kant said that the reform of a justice system is measured by how citizens, lawyers, and other stakeholders can benefit from it.
"We must ensure that every court serves as an integrated digital court equipped not only with hybrid hearing facilities, but also capable of functioning as a fully paperless court. Technology has become a constitutional instrument. It is no longer just a convenience for administration; it is a tool that strengthens equality before the law, expands access to justice, and allows the judiciary to overcome procedural rigidities," CJI Kant said.
He added that they have a larger vision for creating a "natively digital" ecosystem, a future where justice is not just a place to go, but a service that is seamless, transparent, and available to every individual.
"I am pleased to say that this is no longer just an aspiration for the distant future; it is already underway. The e-Committee is actively building the 'digital foundation' that will allow technology to serve the entire lifecycle of a case and integrate all stakeholders in the justice delivery system," CJI Kant said.
Emphasizing that in a diverse country like India, digitization cannot succeed unless it is accompanied by genuine accessibility, CJI Kant said the establishment of 2,331 e-Sewa Kendras has played an important role.
"These Kendras provide assistance in accessing case status, facilitate video conferencing, and offer support to those who may find digital systems difficult to use. I am confident that these initiatives will ensure that access to digital justice does not depend on a person's wealth or linguistic proficiency. Technology must overcome physical and economic barriers, and that must remain our guiding principle," he said.
CJI Kant further said that the third phase of the e-courts project, which was supported by the Centre with an outlay of Rs 7,210 crore, was designed to be a decisive reorientation of the entire system, and the vision was to bring the promise of digitization to the remotest corners of the country.
"It seems to me that technology, by itself, is not the yardstick for advancement. At best, it can accelerate a process. But if the underlying processes remain cumbersome and rooted in outdated procedures, technology can only provide limited relief. It may improve convenience, but it cannot, by itself, bring about the structural reforms that our justice system requires," he said, adding that the changes made by the judiciary over the years have marked the emergence of a new kind of system.
CJI Kant highlighted the National Judicial Data Grid as a structural reform, saying it is perhaps one of the most consequential transparency and monitoring tools any democracy has created for its justice system, enabling the tracking of over 4.5 crore pending cases in real time.
"It gave us the gift of e-filing, which allowed litigants and lawyers to approach courts without physically entering them. And it laid the foundation for Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software (SUVAS), an AI-enabled translation tool, that undertook the momentous task of translating the vast repository of Supreme Court judgments into regional languages," he said.
Justice Vikram Nath, who is the chairperson of the Supreme Court's e-Committee, which is responsible for digitally interlinking all courts and forming an IT-enabled judiciary system in the country, announced that to ensure consistency and decorum of court proceedings, pilot testing of digital courts 2.1 is underway, and it will soon be rolled out across the country.
"We have also taken important steps towards enhancing transparency. The live streaming of court proceedings has opened the doors of our courtrooms to the public in an unprecedented manner. This initiative has been successfully introduced in several high courts... To ensure consistency and decorum, the e-Committee has framed model rules for live streaming and recording of court proceedings, and the pilot testing of digital courts. 2.1 is already underway. This initiative will soon be rolled out across the country and will further standardize and enhance our digital capabilities," he said.
Justice Nath said that judicial process re-engineering is not about altering the fundamentals of justice but about redesigning the pathways through which justice is delivered.
"It requires us to deconstruct existing workflows, remove redundancies and rebuild them with clarity and efficiency," he said.