The Supreme Court of India made a historic step on September 14th by putting its case data into the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).
What is the NJDG (National Judicial Data Grid)?
- Comprehensive Archive: NJDG serves as a comprehensive online repository for housing orders, judgements, and case particulars from a broad network of 18,735 District and Subordinate Courts, as well as the High Court.
- Access in Real Time: This platform is an essential part of the eCourts Project, providing real-time updates and detailed data down to the Taluka level.
NJDG administration
- NJDG was created as part of Phase II of the e-Courts initiative, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed at modernising the Indian court.
- Collaborative Effort: To bring NJDG to fruition, the National Informatics Centre (NIC) worked closely with the Computer Cell’s in-house software development team.
- User-Friendly Interface: NJDG features an interactive interface as well as an analytics dashboard, guaranteeing that legal experts and the general public can access it.
The Effectiveness of Data
- Monitoring and Management: NJDG is a powerful tool for monitoring and controlling case backlogs, thereby reducing the load of pending cases.
- Example from the Supreme Court: According to data from the Supreme Court in 2023, there are 64,854 registered cases pending, with 5,412 new cases received and 5,033 cases disposed out in the previous month. This emphasises that the backlog is mostly made up of legacy cases that are being managed at a rate comparable to the annual influx of new cases.
- Identifying Bottlenecks: NJDG assists in the identification of specific bottlenecks in the legal process. For example, an increase in land dispute cases in one state causes politicians to consider strengthening related regulations.
- Perspectives from the Chief Justice: According to year-by-year pendency data, the Supreme Court has less than a hundred cases pending from before 2000, allowing the Chief Justice to prioritise the resolution of the oldest cases.
- Specialised Insights: NJDG can also help you generate insights into specialised areas of law. For example, it connects property Records data from 26 states with NJDG to properly track property dispute cases.
Source: https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/everyday-explainers/national-judicial-data-grid-explained-8940972/#:~:text=The%20Supreme%20Court%20on%20Thursday,the%20courts%20across%20the%20country.