Digitisation to crisis-proof justice delivery: Justice Chandrachud

Digitisation to crisis-proof justice delivery: Justice Chandrachud

Subject : Judiciary

Context : Speaking at the inauguration of the ‘Paperless District Courts in Odisha’ project, Justice Chandrachud said “familiarising oneself with technology is not as difficult as it may initially seem” and pointed out that after the Covid-19 pandemic, his chamber “functions almost entirely without paper and I am now a self-confessed technology geek”.

Concept :

• He added that “today, a ‘Green Bench’ does not mean a Bench hearing environmental cases but a Bench which aims to conduct proceedings with zero physical filings, as will hopefully be the case in paperless courts”.

Green bench

• A green bench is a judicial benches in higher courts that hears and adjudicates disputes relating to the preservation of forests and protection of environment.
• On April 16,1996, a division bench of the Supreme Court (SC) comprising Justices Kuldip Singh and S Saghir Ahmed directed the chief justice of the Calcutta High Court to constitute a special division bench to hear environment-related petitions – and the nation’s first green bench was born. The SC has directed this bench to meet once a week.
• The word green bench was coined by the Supreme Court in the ‘Madras Tanneries’ case, on August 28, 1996.