India has been experimenting with technology for
long. Even a basic level legal framework has been introduced in India
in the form of Information Technology Act, 2000 though it requires
immediate repeal
or amendment. There are many shortcomings of the IT Act
2000 and one of them is non
binding nature of e-governance
obligations of Indian government. The National
E-Governance Plan (NEGP) of India has also failed to meet
its objectives and marks. As a result India has failed on the fronts
of both e-government
and e-governance.
While India is still struggling to deal with basic
level technology adoption, the BJP government has announced projects
like Digital
India and Internet of things (IoT) that rely prominently
upon technology. These projects intend to extend the services to
general public in the filed like healthcare, education, judicial
services etc.
As far as judiciary is concerned, we are still
struggling to establish the first
e-court of India till October 2014. In these
circumstances, achieving the objective of establishing e-judiciary in
India is still a distant
dream. E-judiciary project of India is also suffering from
lack of techno legal expertise to manage the same. For instance, we
have a single techno legal e-courts
training centre in India. There is urgent need to develop
e-courts
skills in India so that e-judiciary project can become a
reality.
However, it is not the case that no progress has
been made in this regard. India judiciary has taken a pro active role
to introduce technology for legal and judicial purposes. For instance
legal
notices can be served through e-mails, e-filing
directions has been prescribed by Delhi High Court,
marriage
registration certificates can be obtained through video
conferencing, etc.
If India wishes to achieve her noble objective of
providing access
to justice to marginalised segment of India, courts
automation and digital
preservation, much more is required to be done. Mere
policy formulation is not going to be helpful and it is the actual
implementation that is important. The BJP government must stress upon
actual implementation than formulating policies and strategies that
remain on paper alone.
