Courts to have video conferencing facilities to hear criminal cases

Tahir Mushtaq

JAMMU, Oct 02: All the jails and courts in Jammu and Kashmir will be soon connected with video conferencing facility, allowing judges to conduct trial while sitting at their respective courts.

A senior officer said that centre has asked the J&K to select the people for handling the equipments. “There is need for a separate technical wing to run the project and they have to be imparted necessary training to handle it”, said an official. 

As part of the centrally sponsored E-Court project, National Informatics Centre
(NIC) has started a detailed survey of the requirements to implement the project
and the report will be submitted to the central government for the final approval.

Sources said that state government is showing keen interest in the project,
keeping in view problems police is facing while shifting militants and hardcore
criminals to courts during the trial period.

“NIC has already asked its unit in the state to make detailed report about the
requirements and problems they will face when the project would be started, as it  will be the main implementing agency”, officials said.

The project is being implemented in Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Haryana and
Himachal Pradesh as part of the modernisation plan for the jails and courts and
speeding up the justice process.

“It had been found that the detainees had to waste a long period before they were
produced in the trial courts. The reason was they had to be moved from distant
places to the district headquarters where the courts exist, this will simply the
process”, officials said.

Sources said that Government of India plans to spend over Rs.500 crores on the
rehabilitation of jail inmates over next decade.

Few years back government had decided to install E-attendance system in all the jails of the state for the daily attendance of the staff, though the project was not fully implemented, but at some jails it is working. At many places, CCTV cameras have been installed to keep an eye on the inmates, many of them are local and foreign militants.