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<b>M J Antony:</b> Swamped in cyberland

Lower Budget allocation for computerisation will hinder access to legal information

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M J Antony
Websites are going 2.0 these days and information technology is hurtling towards unknown horizons. But the websites of our courts are trapped in cyber sloughs. With the Union Budget reducing the provision for computerisation from Rs 78 crore last year to Rs 58 crore, they will find it hard to clamber out and make access for the public easier. Few wings of the state lag behind times like court websites and this congenitally conservative sector is still grappling with future shock.

This is all the more upsetting since people are increasingly impatient for information of all kinds. Every social and economic question soon gets stewed in legal complexities. Judges are too willing to take up issues agitated in the streets. So the judiciary should open its vaults of information to the public. Judgments should be uploaded on court websites as soon as the judges sign them. But it still treats judgments as the patrimony of the legal profession.
 

For instance, open the website of a high court to read its judgments. You will be asked the case number, the names of the lawyers or judges. The judgment might be of great public importance, and there are people who don't wear black gowns and still interested in the interpretation of the Constitution and other laws touching upon ordinary lives. But they cannot read the words of judicial wisdom just because they don't have the case number.

The Gujarat (High Court) model could be the worst in this respect. Its website opens with a long disclaimer in US English with grammar and punctuation mistakes. Though the site is over a decade old, it warns the visitor that it is run on "test basis" and the information may not be accurate. It shall not be used for any official purpose. If you press the "I agree" button after reading this unnerving disclaimer, there is double trouble. You have to feed a long list of details, of which only a lawyer is capable, and have to choose from 75 subject types. Even the lawyer might need the help of his munshi to fill up entries such as "Sick-Leave Note".

Other high courts are a little better. If you want to read judgments of important high courts such as Calcutta and Bombay, you must know the case number, the names of the parties or judges. Few would know these and so the public are practically barred at the gate. The Allahabad High Court website allows you to read "important decisions that were in headlines" but you have to feed a security code to open each of them.

The websites of the tribunals show uneven quality. The National Consumer Commission is far ahead in providing information promptly and easily. On the other hand, the Intellectual Property Appellate Tribunal has just five pages, and only two decisions of this year have been uploaded. The rest belongs mostly to 2005, when perhaps the site was inaugurated by a tech-savvy president. There are nearly 40 appellate tribunals in theory, but it is difficult to track their websites; try the all-important Money Laundering Appellate Tribunal.

The website of the Supreme Court is currently under renovation and many people find the changes meaningless and clumsy. It is too early to say what will emerge ultimately. There are well-defined models to follow, like that of the US Supreme Court. It even marks seats for media persons and visitors in advance, unlike the Indian Supreme Court where passes are issued several times for the seats available and visitors often stand nose up for air. Many countries have courts that are on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Despite all these, the website of the Supreme Court of India is the best so far. The judgments are available to anyone without knowing the case number, name of the lawyer and other keywords demanded by high court websites. There are 11 easy ways to access any of its judgments. The full text is uploaded within reasonable time after pronouncement. The e-committee of the court runs a model for other courts.

Unfortunately, these practices are not followed by other courts in the country. For some reason, each high court or tribunal has its own uniform resource locator or URL and design. The National Informatics Centre, which designed most websites, has done it differently for each court. This lack of co-ordination will ruffle even a legal wonk. The e-committee of the Supreme Court could spare the public from this muddle if it asks at least the high courts to follow its apex court design.

Legal information should no longer be trapped in the dusty libraries of lawyers. It has now become a powerful tool of civil society. Designing user-friendly websites does not cost much extra money; it only needs enthusiasm and imagination. We seem to lack all these. It is as if the men in black fear the advent of the brave new world.

Disclaimer: These are personal views of the writer. They do not necessarily reflect the opinion of www.business-standard.com or the Business Standard newspaper

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First Published: Jul 15 2014 | 9:48 PM IST

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