Delhi High Court launches cause lists accessible to visually impaired, digital trial court records and more

The Delhi High Court has launched several new digital initiatives to mark this year's Independence Day including cause lists that are meant to be accessible to visually impaired litigants, lawyers and others. .The new "Web Accessibility Compliant Cause List" will help visually impaired advocates, litigants, and the public at large to access the cause list of the Delhi High Court seamlessly by using various accessibility text-to-speech software, the High Court informed. .The move was executed through an Accessibility Committee constituted in the High Court with Justice Rajiv Shakhder as its chairperson, and after taking feedback from visually impaired advocates, Rahul Bajaj and Amar Jain. .This was one among several new information and communication technology (ICT) projects launched by the High Court today. .The inauguration was carried out by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, in the presence of Justice Shakdher, who also serves as the Chairman of the High Court's Information Technology Committee. The event was also attended by Justices Sanjeev Sachdeva, Sanjeev Narula, and Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav, (member of the Information Technology Committee), and other judges..The new initiatives inaugurated today include the following, as per a press note.Ten new websites for all the Delhi District Courts were introduced on the S3WaaS platformPreviously, the district court websites were functioning on the Drupal platform. The newly introduced Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service (S3WaaS) websites adhere to GIGW Compliance (Guidelines for Indian Government websites). These websites are built on Open-Source Technology, feature integrated search capabilities, and are designed to be Accessibility Compliant, the press release stated.All documents on the websites are kept in OCR format so that visually impaired persons can access documents with ease. The data of previous websites is also migrated to the new platform, it added..Digital Platform for sharing of Trial Court Records (TCR) with the High CourtEarlier, the trial court records (TCR) were shared with the High Courts using CDs. District Courts used to acquire approximately 8,000 CDs annually for this purpose, the press noted stated. However, due to wear and tear, the CDs often became corrupted and damaged. With the new facility in place, district courts can now effortlessly share the TCRs with the High Court via an SSL VPN-based platform. Once the digital TCR is received by the High Court, it would be verified and made part of the case file shared with the court for court proceedings. .Web Accessibility Compliant Cause List for visually impaired lawyersThe E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India had earlier issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the creation of documents that are accessible to individuals with disabilities.This led to the constitution of the Accessibility Committee in the High Court Court, which has now modified the cause lists of the Delhi High Court to meet web accessibility standards and become more accessible to visually impaired persons. .Notably, Accessibility Committees are now being constituted in all district courts of Delhi as well. The details of such committees will be published on the website of the district courts and the Delhi High Court..The press release further recounted that the High Court previously introduced initiatives such as e-filing, e-Inspection of records, Digital Traffic Courts, and Hybrid e-Seva Kendra. .[Read Press Release]