The Madhya Pradesh High Court has ordered a detailed enquiry into persistent problems with its website and called for an independent audit of the Court’s IT system after finding that technical glitches were disrupting e-hearings and consuming judicial time.
A bench of Justice Vivek Agarwal and Justice Avanindra Kumar Singh, in its September 8 order, also asked the Chief Justice to take action against the IT staff concerned. The Court said the website’s condition remained far from satisfactory despite an earlier indication that the updation process would take eight days.
As part of the remedial measures, the bench directed that experts from reputed technology companies such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and L&T Technology Services be engaged for a third-party audit of the High Court’s IT system. The exercise has to be completed within 30 days and its report placed before the Court.
The expert team may also include officers from the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) of the Government of India and MASSCOM, the Court added.
Seven-Day Enquiry Into Technical Roadblocks
The bench separately directed K.S. Kushwaha, Registrar (ITCSA), to conduct a detailed enquiry into the reasons behind the obstacles affecting the High Court’s functioning. It ordered action against those found responsible and sought a report from the Registrar within seven days.
The directions followed technical difficulties encountered by the bench while dealing with an unrelated criminal matter concerning suspension of sentence and grant of bail to an accused.
The Court found that the website was not adequately supporting e-hearings. Lawyers present in open court also raised concerns about its functioning and told the bench that the earlier website had worked better.
Problems Persisted During Registrar’s Presence
The bench recorded that the acting Chief Justice had circulated a WhatsApp message among the judges on August 25/26 stating that updating the website would require eight days. However, more than 15 days had passed and the website continued to face problems.
Registrar Kushwaha was consequently asked to assist the Court. When the system was tested in his presence, the bench found that buffering and hanging issues continued.
Taking serious note of the disruption, the Court observed that judicial time had been lost because of the IT staff’s incompetence and left it to the Chief Justice to initiate action against the officials concerned.
The bench thereafter ordered both an internal enquiry into the difficulties affecting the website and an independent third-party assessment of the High Court’s IT infrastructure.
