He is witty and good humoured, simple and forceful. Hear him talk and you soon realize the greatness of the man. He drives his point home with the power of crystal clear perception and the ease of a natural wit. He talks in the common man's tongue but his profound knowledge comes through. He is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of India, Justice AM Ahmadi.
COMPUTER IN THE LEGAL PROFESSION
Information Technology has pervaded every walk of life. Computers are everywhere. We are now beginning to feel the beneficial impact of Information Technology-based modernization. I would like to share with you our experience in the legal profession of using computers for streamlining Court operations. The National Informatics Centre and NICNET have supported us in this direction quite substantially. The computerization of the Cause List in the Supreme Court has led to perceptible change in the work culture of the Supreme Court as well as the High Courts. A number of measures including computerization adopted by us has brought down the pendancy of cases in the Supreme Court substantially. Computerized bunching of cases can bring this number further down.
ON COURTNIC
COURTNIC is a database servicing the litigant public all over the Country, over NICNET. It is also making use of the NICNET Information Highway in some cities. The litigants need not come to Delhi to know the status of their case as they used to do in the past. Now from any of the 500 centres of NIC all over the Country, they can access the information for a very small fee of Rs 40 per query charged by NIC. Dr Seshagiri informs me that more than 200 queries are pouring in over NICNET every day, from all over the Country.
COMING OF JUDIS
Recently I inaugurated NIC's JUDIS service. JUDIS is the short form for Judgement Information System. All recorded judgements of the Supreme Court from 1950 onwards are in the computer and are available over NICNET from every district headquarter. Even the enthusiasm displayed by not only the Lawyers and Judges, but also by the litigants in accessing this database, points out that the number of queries on NICNET from all over the Country every day may become more than even a thousand in the next few months.
GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE
NIC has a proposal for accessing Legal Information Systems all over the world using the World Wide Web Service that they have recently set up. This service, called C-WEB, is the beginning of the Worldwide Information Super Highway Service in India. With the National Highway and International Super Highway that has been set up by the National Informatics Centre, we have become one of the very few countries in the world who have operational services. I am aware that there are a few problems restricting wider access of NICNET, but I am confident that very soon most of these constraints will be removed and all promotional applications will get access to the NICNET Highway and Super Highway.