As many as 35 judges were appointed to the Supreme Court while 557 new judges were appointed and 483 additional judges made permanent in various High Courts in the country between 2014 to 2020, the government informed the Rajya Sabha.
In a written reply to a question, Minister for Law and Justice Ravi Shankar Prasad said the number of computerized District and Subordinate courts has increased from 13,672 in 2014 to 16,845 as on September 14, 2020, registering an increase of 3,173.
He said a new and user-friendly version of Case Information Software
has been developed and deployed at all the computerized District and Subordinate Courts.
All stakeholders including Judicial Officers can access information relating to judicial proceedings/decisions of computerized District & Subordinate Courts and High Courts on the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) as on September 14, 2020.
The minister informed that eCourt services such as details of case registration, cause lists, case status, daily orders and final judgments are available to litigants and advocates through the eCourts web portal, Judicial Service Centres (JSC) in all computerized courts, eCourts Mobile App, email service, SMS push and pull services.
“Video conferencing facility has been enabled between 3,240 court complexes and 1,272 corresponding jails,” he said.
“From May 1, 2014 to September 14, 2020, 35 Judges were appointed in Supreme Court. 557 new Judges were appointed and 483 Additional Judges were made permanent in the High Courts. Sanctioned strength of Judges of High Courts has been increased from 906 in May, 2014 to 1079 currently,” he said.
The sanctioned and working strength of Judicial Officers in District and Subordinate Courts has increased from 19,518 and 15,115 respectively as on December 31, 2013, while the sanctioned strength of judges on September 15, 2020 is 24,203 and the working strength is 19,171.