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13 LIM 203 (2013)
The Indian Judicial System: Transition from Print to Digital

handle is hein.journals/leginfom13 and id is 219 raw text is: 


Legal Information Management, 13 (2013), pp. 203-208
© The Author(s) 2013. Published by British and Irish Association of Law Librarians


doi: 10. 1017/SI 472669613000443


INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVES


                 The Indian Judicial System:


            Transition from Print to Digital


INTRODUCTION

The court system in India is divided into three stages: (i)
Trial and Session Courts (ii) the 21 High Courts at State
level and (iii) the Supreme Court. Supreme Court
Judgments are binding on the High Courts of various
states and the lower judiciary. Overall, the court system
in India, whilst maintaining an independent judiciary, has
tended to be inefficient and has also suffered from cor-
ruption. A very serious backlog of pending cases in the
courts has led, at various points, to calls for reform and
has invited the greater incorporation of information and
communication technology (ICT) to assist with making
the necessary improvements throughout the judiciary and
across the legal system in India.


BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDIAN
JUDICIAL SYSTEM

The history of law in India has layers of complexity and
many influences. Courts did not exist in the early
societies of India and the mode of justice was in the form
of revenge, which was a private matter. During the Vedic
and pre-Mauryan periods (more than 2,000 years ago),
kings presided over the law courts and decided cases by
relying on law codes or smritis (codes of Hindu custom-
ary law). The laws of Manu and the writings of Indian
jurists refer to the existence of peoples' courts at the
village level. At that time codes of conduct for Judges,
and procedures for dispensing justice, existed in order to
allow of the legal system to function. Justice was dis-
pensed on the basis of norms laid down in the scriptures
in the Vedas, Dharma sutras, Vedangas, Purans as well as
the customs and usage of communities. (Khanna, 2008).
The Mughal period brought with it the domination of
Islamic jurisprudence which was laid down by the Quran


and the Muslim law of Shariat. There were mainly three
kinds of court in that period: (i) Court of religious law
(ii) Court of secular cases (iii) Court for political cases
(Khanna, 2008).
   During the British period, the power to dispense
justice rested with East India Company and later the
English common law system was introduced. Under the
earlier period, the East India Company had sole responsi-
bility for the judicial system. The company was granted a
charter by King George I in 1726 to establish 'Mayor's
Courts' in three metropolitan cities - Madras, Bombay
and Calcutta-and the functions of the company increased
considerably after the victory in the Battle of Plassey in
1757. After that, the courts expanded to other parts of
the country. After 1857, the power of the company's ter-
ritories in India  passed  to   the  British Crown.
Subsequently the Supreme Courts were established and
these courts were transformed to the first High Courts
by the Indian High Courts Act passed by the British
Parliament in 1862. In the same year the Law Commission,
under the chairmanship of Thomas Babington Macaulay,
prepared the Indian Penal Code (the main criminal code of
India) which was subsequently enacted into force.
   Today, in independent India, the Constitution of India
is the guiding light in all matters including with the legisla-
ture and concerning the judicial system in the country. In
India, the union and the states have their own executive
and legislative branches. The union territories are gov-
erned by the National Government. The law generated
by the Union is binding to all the States. India has a
bicameral Parliamentary system, whose upper house is
the Council of States (Rajya Sabha) and lower house is
the House of People (Lok Sabha). (Thanuskodi, 2010).
The judiciary remains independent within the country.
   The E-Committee, which is mentioned later in this
article, and was constituted by Supreme Court of India,

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