“Harness Technology To Improve Legal System”: Justice Manmohan

The Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice Manmohan, emphasized the importance of technology in enhancing the legal system during the inauguration of a pilot hybrid court with a speech-to-text facility for evidence recording and the launch of a digital court application at Tis Hazari district court on Friday.

“We have to use and harness technology to improve the legal system to ensure that the people who are accused of crimes are brought to book and the delays have to be cut short… the only way to ensure that the system works properly is to ensure that good technology is brought into the system,” Justice Manmohan stated.

He described the speech-to-text facility for evidence recording as a “very powerful tool” with the potential to become a “game-changer.” Justice Manmohan also highlighted the need to combat the misuse of technology and enforce laws effectively through the right technological applications.

Addressing the issue of stenographer shortages, he noted that the speech-to-text facility could alleviate this problem significantly. “The first and the biggest problem that I face is all judges are requesting a large number of stenographers, and there is not enough pool available… I think this will solve the problem to a large extent,” he said.

Justice Manmohan praised the effort to promote paperless courts and acknowledged the financial challenges involved. “We are ensuring that we are able to develop hybrid court facilities in all the 691 district courtrooms, and a budget of about Rs 387 crore is on the anvil,” he added, mentioning the implementation of 14 pilot court projects.

Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Rajiv Shakder, who heads the IT committee, also spoke at the event. Sanjay Garg, Principal District and Sessions Judge (Headquarters), delivered the welcome address, while Vinod Kumar, Principal District and Sessions Judge (West), gave the vote of thanks.

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