BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa High Court and its subordinate courts heard around four lakh cases virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic from March 2020 to October 2021.
This was informed by Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju to the Lok Sabha. “The Orissa High Court heard 2,18,073 cases from March 23, 2020 to October 31, 2021 while the district courts in Odisha have heard 1,81,653 cases from March 1, 2020 to till end of October 2021 totalling 3,99,726 cases,” said the Minister.
The High Court has launched a software module called Order Communication Portal (OCP) to facilitate secure and instantaneous communication of its orders and judgments to subordinate courts in a paperless environment thereby saving resources and time consumed in traditional methods of correspondence.
Rijiju said live streaming of cases is functional since August 2, 2021, in the Orissa High Court. The High Court’s e-Services mobile app helps lawyers and litigants avail case and court-related information from the convenience of their smartphones.
Besides, providing case status, cause list, new cases filed, judgment/orders, defect status, certified copy status, the mobile app also features a live display board for all benches and a digital notice board of the court.
He said the Centre has been implementing e-Courts as a mission mode project across the country including Odisha for information and communication technology (ICT) enablement of the district and subordinate courts. The number of computerised district and subordinate courts including those located in Odisha have increased to 18,735 as on December 1, 2021.
WAN connectivity has been provided to 98.7 per cent of court complexes. New and user-friendly version of case information software has been developed and deployed at all the computerised district and subordinate courts.
The Minister said 15 virtual courts have been set up in 11 states including Odisha to try traffic offenses. These courts have handled more than 1.07 crore cases and realised more than Rs 201.96 crore in fine as on December 3, 2021.