The Supreme Court of India has embarked on a transformative journey towards enhancing transparency and accountability within the judicial domain. This significant stride was marked by its official integration with the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG), as announced by the Chief Justice of India (CJI), DY Chandrachud.
The NJDG, a flagship initiative of the E-Courts Mission, provides real-time data on case pendency across District Courts and High Courts throughout the nation. Previously, data from the Supreme Court was absent from this grid, but with this recent integration, it’s now readily accessible as part of the court’s ‘open data policy’.
The development of the NJDG was a collaborative endeavor between the National Informatics Centre and the Supreme Court’s in-house IT team. This platform is poised to bring about a sea change in the way legal data is accessed and analyzed.
With real-time updates, users can now delve into comprehensive details about the Supreme Court’s case disposals and pending cases, all organized meticulously by case type, year, stage, and forum. The CJI emphasized the ease with which users can now retrieve all pertinent information about case institution, disposal, and pendency with just a simple click.
Furthermore, the CJI showcased the NJDG webpage, offering a glimpse into its rich features. These include insights into the current year’s pendency of both civil and criminal cases, as well as the total pendency of registered cases, which are those still awaiting rectification by lawyers.
The platform’s visual aids, such as graphs, provide a clear representation of case data, from the number of cases in previous months to those instituted and disposed of in the current year. They also shed light on the coram-wise pendency of cases.
One of the standout features of the NJDG is its ability to depict the influence of vacation periods on case disposals. For instance, data from July 2023 revealed that 5,500 cases were disposed of, in contrast to the 3,115 new cases that were instituted.
Moreover, the NJDG offers a detailed distribution of case types and year-wise pendency data. A point of significance is the fewer than 100 cases that have been pending since before the year 2000. Recognizing the importance of this data, the CJI highlighted its potential as a tool for reorganizing judicial work, emphasizing the need to prioritize the resolution of these older cases. In light of this, there are plans to establish special benches dedicated to addressing these longstanding cases.
This integration signifies a new era for India’s judicial system, one that underscores transparency, accessibility, and efficiency.
