Supreme Courts to go paperless from the date summer vacation ends, July 3, 2023

In the Supreme Court of India, state-of-the-art technology will be introduced for replacing physical copies of documents, and a new digital library will replace law-related books. With this technology, the top Court will go paperless which will come into action from the date summer vacation ends, July 3, 2023. The changes in the Supreme Court will be observed by the Judges and lawyers largely in Courts 1, 2, and 3 which will be gradually adopted and implemented by the other Courts. The Courts will see two big screens for lawyers to interact with counsel (appearing via video conferencing) and a 120-inch screen will be present for video conferencing on one wall of the courtrooms for judges. A document viewer technology will also be provided to the judges for easy access to documents. This technology allows to place a document on the machine which would be seen by the lawyers on their screen (for reading files and documents) and a bigger screen. In order to introduce modern technology within the Supreme Court, there is a need to perform certain changes in its furniture also. The changes were suggested by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, who wants to make courts tech-friendly. In this context, CJI also mentioned performing court proceedings paperless and suggested issuing slips online. Moreover, lawyers will inform the court staff regarding the relevant judgments required (to cite) for their argument that will be searched online and shared with them during the hearing. Display boards with advanced features will also be placed in the Courtrooms. Modern technology will reduce the use of paper which will not only result in making the courtrooms tech-friendly but also eco-friendly.