More than 637 crore pages of court records have been digitised across High Courts and district courts in India as part of the e-Courts Mission Mode Project, the Union Law Ministry informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday..In a written reply to a question raised by CPI (M) MP AA Rahim, Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal stated that as of December 31, 2025, around 236.96 crore pages had been digitised in High Courts, while 400.89 crore pages had been digitised in district courts across the country..The Law Ministry acknowledged that digitisation levels were modest prior to the rollout of Phase III of the project. According to the detailed project report (DPR), only 5.9 per cent of legacy court records had been digitised by 21 High Courts before the current phase began.Phase III now envisages the digitisation of approximately 3,100 crore documents, including both legacy and current records. A Digital Preservation Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) has been prepared to govern scanning, storage, retrieval and long-term preservation of judicial records, the reply stated..The Ministry said that Phase III also proposes the establishment of paperless court infrastructure, including customised software applications that allow judges, lawyers, litigants and the public to access e-filed and scanned case records digitally..On funding, the Ministry stated that under Phase II of the e-Courts project (2015–2022), a total of ₹1,164.37 crore was released to High Courts.Under Phase III, the government released a total of ₹2,473.8 crore between 2023-2026. This includes:₹611.88 crore in 2023–24₹997.49 crore in 2024–25₹864.43 crore in 2025–26 (as on February 2, 2026)Additional funds were released to NIC, BSNL, the Supreme Court e-Committee and IIT Madras for technical support, connectivity, training and development of digital platforms..The Law Ministry also disclosed extensive use of virtual courts and video conferencing as part of the digitisation drive.As of December 31, 2025, nearly 9.81 crore challans had been processed through virtual courts across States, resulting in the collection of about ₹973 crore in fines, largely relating to traffic and transport offences.Further, courts across the country have heard over 3.93 crore cases through video conferencing, including around 97.89 lakh cases in High Courts and 2.95 crore cases in district courts, the reply stated..[Read Response].Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.
