Chief justice of India NV Raman launches “FASTER” software for electronic delivery of orders

Chief justice of India NV Raman launches “FASTER” software for electronic delivery of orders

What is the news :

• CJI N.V. Ramana launches digital platform ‘Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records’
• Days of endless waiting to get a hard copy of a Supreme Court order is over.
• Now, all it takes for the court to do is a soft tap of the ‘send’ button and, may be, a couple of blinks of the eye after with ‘FASTER’, an abbreviation of ‘Fast and Secured Transmission of Electronic Records’, a digital platform formally launched by Chief Justice of India (CJI) N.V. Ramana .
• The platform would be used by the court officials to instantly to send e-copies of the orders through a secured electronic communication channel to intended parties.
• These orders may vary from stay of execution of a person to freeze on the demolition of a slum to bail orders for undertrial prisoners.
• FASTER would aid the cause of quick and effortless justice.

The ‘FASTER’ System

• Apart from the quick transmission, the software aims to disseminate the necessary without being tampered with by a third party.
• The Indian Express reports that the apex court had taken up suo moto cognisance of the prisoners whose release was delayed in the Agra Central Jail. CJI Ramana told the publication, “We took up a suo-moto case after that and then roped in Justices AM Khanwilkar, DY Chandrachud, Hemant Gupta and others. Orders passed by the Supreme Court and other High Courts have to be transmitted safely without tinkering by third parties.

• The software has been developed in collaboration with the National Informatics Centre. Before its release, the ideas were discussed and sought consultation from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and a Senior Advocate named Dushyant Dave.
• In turn, they presented a report that consisted of the rules and regulations of the said process. With the help of email, the orders will be passed to the concerned authorities through a nodal officer.
• So far, 73 of them have been appointed on various levels. All of them are connected with the help of a secured pathway under a Judicial Commission Network (JCN). A ‘FASTER’ cell has been established in the Supreme Court, and around 1883 emails have been generated for the same

Agra jail inmates case

• The idea stemmed from a case reported in The Hindu in July last about several prisoners in the Agra Jail forced to remain behind bars for three days after the court granted them bail because the hard copies of the order had not reached the prison officials.
• Shocked by the brazen violation of the fundamental rights of personal liberty, life and dignity of the prisoners, the CJI had suo motu taken cognisance of the issue of delay in delivery of court orders and asked whether the court was “still looking at the skies for pigeons to deliver our orders in this era of modern technology?”
• The timely delivery of the court’s orders to the authorities would also prevent unnecessary arrests and custody of people who have already been granted anticipatory bail.