Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a virtual meeting stressed on the need to avoid “overzealous PILs” during these “challenging times.”
While no one can stop anyone from filing cases, the Law Minister is stated to have said that “there needs to be an effective response to these types of interventions.
As for the Law Minister’s point on avoiding “overzealous PILs”, the Attorney General and Solicitor General agreed with Prasad during the meet.
The meeting resulted in a consensus that, in view of the seriousness of the pandemic, Court proceedings through video conferencing may remain a norm for some time to come. The Law Minister, in particular, emphasized that this challenge must be taken as an opportunity to make digital systems in justice delivery more robust.
The Secretary of the Department of Justice highlighted various issues on the functioning of e-Courts and related developments. The Secretary shared that during the lockdown, there was a significant growth in the number of Advocates who have registered for e-filing of cases. In this regard, it was stated that 1,282 Advocates have registered for e-filing of petitions during lockdown, out of which 543 Advocates have registered in the last one week alone.
Given that technical glitches continue to affect virtual hearings, the Attorney General and many other law officers also stressed that there was a need to strengthen the e-Courts system by addressing the connectivity issues and by training of lawyers in e-Courts management.
The Law Minister has directed the Secretary of the Justice Department to place these challenges before the Committee, in coordination with the NIC and other agencies so that the system may be improved.
