Virtual/E-Courts in India – Need, Advantages, Challenges

Courts are an essential service for civil society. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts across India have gone into an urgent-only, online-only mode with electronic filings, email mentions and online hearing for select cases via video conferencing/audio facilities. This is a necessary step to the already burdened judiciary to dispose of the pending cases before the lockdown is lifted. Many have readily adapted to this swift change during these trying times. However, the concept of e-court or a virtual court still has limitations and issues, though the scopes are many. Therefore, necessary solutions must be put forth so that the concept of e-courts is made permanent to certain hearings.

What are e-courts?