SDG 16: Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions | SDG 9: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure
Institutions: Ministry of Law and Justice | Supreme Court of India | Department of Justice
At the 10th OECD Global Roundtable on Equal Access to Justice in Madrid, the Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Law & Justice, Shri Arjun Ram Meghwal, presented India’s approach to building a data-driven, people-centric, inclusive, and technology-enabled justice system. The Minister emphasized that India’s reforms are anchored in the constitutional vision of equal justice and free legal aid for all, as enshrined in Article 39A.
India highlighted the e-Courts Mission Mode Project (Phase III, 2023–2027) as one of the largest digital transformations in the justice sector globally, aiming for intelligent, paperless, and integrated courts. Over 560 crore pages of judicial records are being digitized, and major milestones have been achieved, including 3.86 crore virtual hearings conducted, saving significant time and cost for litigants. The Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) is digitally linking courts with police, prosecution, prisons, and forensics to enable quicker, evidence-backed decision-making.
Furthermore, India is integrating technology with outreach through its flagship DISHA program and the Tele-Law initiative, which has provided over 1.1 crore citizens with free legal advice in 22 Indian languages. The adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), through tools like SUVAS (for regional language translation of judgments) and SUPACE (for intelligent case research), remains human-supervised, ethically guided, and privacy-conscious.
India’s model—which integrates robust digital public infrastructure (e-Courts, ICJS) with community-based legal aid (Tele-Law) to reach over 1.1 crore citizens—is a major contribution to the global effort to strengthen access to justice. This model confirms that technology can bridge barriers of geography and language in a large, diverse democracy, provided the adoption of AI remains ethically guided and human-supervised to uphold judicial discretion and fairness.
What is the Inter-Operable Criminal Justice System (ICJS) and its purpose in judicial reform?→ The ICJS is a dedicated digital platform designed to ensure seamless and efficient data exchange among all five pillars of the criminal justice system: Courts, Police, Prosecution, Prisons, and Forensics. Its primary purpose is to integrate these separate systems, creating a single, verifiable digital workflow for every case. This integration enables quicker, evidence-backed decision-making by eliminating manual data entry and ensuring records are updated in real-time, thereby improving overall efficiency and transparency in the criminal justice system.
Relevant Question for Policy Stakeholders: How can the Ministry of Law and Justice leverage the Tele-Law initiative’s success to expand the delivery of pro-bono legal services by private practitioners at scale?
Follow the full news here: India’s Justice Reform Model Showcased Globally