Chief Justice of India N V Ramana launched software to create court filings smoothly

01-04-2022

Speaking at the launch event, magistrate of India N V Ramana recalled that the court had discover the concept after viewing a newspaper report about delay in release of prisoners thanks to the delay in physical orders reaching the prison authorities.

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Thursday launched FASTER (Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records) — a digital platform to speak interim orders, stay orders, bail orders etc., of the Supreme Court to authorities concerned through a secured transmission channel.

Speaking at the launch event, the CJI recalled that the court had uncover the concept after discovering a newspaper report about delay in release of prisoners as a result of the delay in physical orders reaching the prison authorities.

“We took up a suo motu case thereafter then roped in Justices A M Khanwilkar, D Y Chandrachud, Hemant Gupta et al. Orders gone along the Supreme Court and other High Courts must be transmitted safely without tinkering by third parties,” CJI Ramana said.

In July last year, a Bench headed by the CJI had taken suo motu cognisance of the delayed release of convicts lodged within the Agra central jail even three days after the court had granted them bail. The court then directed the SC Secretary General to submit a proposal suggesting the modalities to implement the FASTER system.

Accordingly, the administrator, in consultation with law officer Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave presented a report outlining the scheme and rules governing implementation of such a scheme, an officer release said.

“As directed by the Bench, the FASTER system is developed on war footing by the Registry unitedly with the National Informatics Centre,” it added.

To reach all districts of India through this method, thus far 73 nodal officers are nominated at various levels. All nodal officers are connected through a selected Judicial Communication Network (JCN) by creating a secured pathway.

A total of 1,887 e-mail IDs are created for this method across the country and a FASTER cell has been established within the Registry of the Supreme Court.

The cell will transmit digitally signed record of proceedings or orders associated with bail and release gone the court to the nodal officers and duty holders concerned through email.

The CJI hoped that within the near future, as a part of the second phase of the project, the SC would be able to transmit all records through this technique dispensing altogether with the requirement to share hard copies.