Courts across Maharashtra to have information kiosks: Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has decided to set up information kiosks at all subordinate courts in the state to provide visitors an avenue to know the status of cases. According to officials, the initiative is part of the e-courts project and kiosks are expected to be in place very soon. According to registrar general, Bombay high court, Mangesh Patil, apart from information kiosks, tenders have also been floated for installation of display boards under the project.

Speaking about the initiative, Mr Patil said that there were more than 2,000 courts in the state and very few of them had information kiosks or display boards. Hence, under the e-courts project which is a central government initiative, subordinate courts including sessions, magistrate and other affiliated courts would get the same installed soon.

“Some of the courts in the state had got display boards installed through the initiative and funding of their respective Collectors. But under the e-courts project aimed at bringing in uniformity and transparency as well as providing access to cases to all stakeholders, it has been decided to install information kiosks and display boards in all courts. The tenders have been floated and the process will be completed soon,” he said.

The kiosks will provide information on day-to-day cases that come up for hearing, case status, cause lists, judge/magistrate lists, notices, and so on. In all, there are 2,547 judges/courts in the state. Mr Patil said that kiosks and display boards will be in English but if vendors who win the bid can provide an alternative in Devanagri script, it could be looked into.

Currently, only the Bombay high court and its benches at Aurangabad and Nagpur have proper display boards with continuous, updated information on court number, judge name and case numbers. The court also has a messaging service that sends reminders and updates to lawyers about the time and status of their cases. These systems will also be put in place for smaller courts after kiosks and display boards are installed.