March 13, 2002

‘7’

USE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN COURTS

    The Supreme Court of India and the High Court of Delhi are providing the status of the cases pending before them on internet for information of the litigants and lawyers. This has been very helpful to the legal professionals and the litigating public.

    Some of the High Courts like High Courts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Bombay, Calcutta and Himachal Pradesh are in the process of developing and testing a software for providing the status of cases and information of the pending cases including their day to day listing on the net.

    Meanwhile, the pendency of cases in the Supreme Court is on the decline. A total of 22,551 cases were pending in the apex court in February, 2002. A total of 35,51,213 cases were pending in all the High Courts of the country. Of these, Allahabad High Court has the highest pendency of cases totaling 8,67,584 cases followed by Kerala High Court with 4,05,469 cases, Madras High Court with 3,50,107 cases, Bombay High Court with 2,94,915 cases, Calcutta High Court, 2,82,808 cases, Punjab and Haryana High Court with 2,33,370 cases, Delhi High Court with 1,78,001 cases, Gujarat High Court, 1,41,046 cases, Andhra Pradesh High Court with 1,45,948 cases, Rajasthan High Court with 1,32,306 cases, Orissa High Court with 1,29,822 cases, Madhya Pradesh High Court with 1,17,141 cases, Karnataka High Court with 85,744 cases, Patna High Court with 78,596 cases, Guwahati High Court with 41,317 cases, Jammu & Kashmir High Court with 32, 762 cases, Jharkhand High Court with 18,552 cases and Sikkim High Court with 122 cases.