ABSTRACT
“Law without justice is blind and justice without law is lame”. Access to justice has been embodied in the concept of Rule of Law and has been recognized as one of the core principles in justice system. A nation cannot withhold its judicial system without taking action towards providing easy accessibility of justice to everyone. Globalization per se has changed the world in the last century and with more global accessibility the concept of global justice has also come into picture. Laws and Regulations are being adopted from other countries to provide for a more effective judicial mechanism. Initiatives are being taken by the government to strengthen digital platforms to access justice. The question however is that why there are approximately 1.4 billion people globally who are unable to meet their civil and administrative justice needs?[1] The digitalization of judicial mechanism is applauding but the issues and challenges that come along with it cannot be blindsided. The initiatives taken by the government needs to be examined as well the global effect in this matter. It is crucial to understand that this principle or issue for that is not something that can be resolved by legal mechanism itself, administrative initiatives and recognizing and resolving assisted factors which leads to this issue to begin with. Digital Divide is one of the prominent factors which leads to access to justice. And the issue is it seems to get wider especially after COVID. An analysis is established here which deals with issue of access to justice in a globalized world and the issue of digital divide that is a prominent problem globally.
Keyword: Access to Justice, Globalization, Digitalization, COVID, Law, Judicial Mechanism.
Chapter 1: Introduction
- Introduction
Digitalization of judicial system is in terms with the advancing technology. When we do compare India with other countries, we can see that in India Digitalization of Justice has come at a very late stage. There are counties like Singapore which had introduced Electronic Filling System way back in the year 1997 and many other countries like Brazil, Canada, USA etc. which had initiated digital justice system way back and been using paperless system and because of which the justice delivery system is such countries is more efficient .
Digital Justice was initiated in the year 2005 when Supreme Court established E-Committee to launch E- Courts in India. The demand for digital justice in India is not something felt because of arrival of COVID pandemic but the same existed way before. In October 2021, Supreme Court mandated E- filling of the cases by the government for all kinds of matters after 1st January of 2022.[2]This comes as a great initiative towards the huge problem of pendency of cases as digital assistance no doubt can cut the cost and time taken during judicial proceedings. Moreover, due to COVID, there has been a major impact and majority of civil cases were tried through online platforms thus the transformation of Indian judiciary can be witnessed.
Access to justice has been a major part of Rule of Law as recognised globally. The apex court has held access to justice as a right guaranteed under Article 14[3] and Article 21[4] of the Indian Constitution. In the case of Anita Kushwaha v. Pushap Sudan[5], the court recognized four elements that constitute access to justice-
- Effective Adjudicatory Mechanism
- Easily accessible (Distance–wise)
- Speedy Adjudication (Justice delayed is justice denied)
- Affordable Litigation
Thus, as far as digitalization of access to justice is considered it is crucial that all the above elements are met.
The present study is going to be focusing on three points- digitalization of access to justice in different countries, effect of globalization on accessibility to justice, laws relating to same and challenges and social and economic factors affecting digital access to justice. For the purpose of evaluating digital use in justice system and to establish the issue of digital divide, an empirical study has been conducted.
[1] World Justice Project, Global Insights on Access to Justice 2019, (Oct. 6, 2022, 12:10 AM), https://worldjusticeproject.org/our-work/research-and-data/global-insights-access-justice-2019.
[2] SatyaMuley, Digitalizing India’s Judiciary: COVID-19’s Silver Lining, (Sept 20,2022,10.AM),
https://thebastion.co.in/politics-and/tech/digitalizing-indias-judiciary-covid-19s-silver-lining/.
[3] Constitution of India, art. 14; Right to Equality.
[4] Constitution of India, art. 21; Right to Life.
[5] Anita Kushwaha v. Pushap Sudan, (2016) 8 SCC 509.