Parliament Watch: e-Courts, Supreme Court appeals, foreign citizenship [Day 9 round up]

The ninth day of the 2021 Winter Session of the Parliament saw responses on topics ranging from e-courts to foreign citizenship acquired by Indians, and more. .A question by BJD MP Subhash Chandra Singh was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on the status of e-courts in Jabalpur, Guwahati, Jodhpur and Raipur and whether the government is contemplating the establishment of e-courts in other states including Odisha.Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju responded that the the district and taluka courts of the mentioned cities have been computerized under the eCourts Project and linked to the National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG).The statement mentioned the progress and steps taken to integrate the lower courts with e-facilities. The same are briefly mentioned below:Number of computerized District & Subordinate courts including those located in Odisha have increased to 18,735 as on 01.12.2021. WAN connectivity has been provided to 98.7% of court complexes.As on December 3, 2021, litigants can access case status of over 19.76 crore cases and 15.99 crore orders/judgments pertaining to these courts..Video conferencing facility has been enabled between 3,240 court complexes and 1,272 corresponding jails.₹5.01 crore has been allocated for providing equipment in video conferencing cabins in various court complexes to facilitate virtual hearings.₹12.12 crore has been allocated for 1,732 Help desk counters for filing in various court complexes.15 Virtual Courts have been set up in 11 States/UTs which have handled more than 1.07 crore cases and realised more than ₹201.96 crore in fines.Since Covid lockdown started, the district courts heard 1,01,77,289 cases while the High Courts heard 55,24,021 cases (totalling to 1.57 core) till October 31 using video conferencing only. The Supreme Court heard 1,50,692 hearings since the lockdown period upto October 29. The High Court of Orissa has heard 2,18,073 cases till October 31 while the District Courts in Odisha have heard 1,81,653 cases from till October 31. Live streaming of cases is functional from August 2, 2021 in the High Court of Orissa.The High Court’s e-Services Mobile App to help lawyers and litigants access case and court related information from the convenience of their smartphones was launched on August 2, 2021..A question was posed before the Rajya Sabha by AAP MP Sushil Kumar Gupta on the number of graft cases which are under Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State, PMO responded that the CBI was investigating 683 cases under Prevention of Corruption Act as on December 31, 2020, and 7 cases have been completed since then.On the initiatives taken to complete investigations, the reply stated,“The progress is periodically reviewed by CBI by holding review meetings where the cases under investigation are examined with a view to expedite investigation.. In some cases, however, additional time may be required because of the complicated nature of cases like scrutiny of voluminous documents, examination of large number of witnesses, obtaining expert opinion, investigation abroad etc.".INC MP Neeraj Dangi asked a question in the Rajya Sabha on the number of appeals pending before the Supreme Court and whether the government has taken any steps to expedite the judicial process and prevent heavy costs due to delays.Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju responding to the question said that according to the data from the Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS), as on December 6, 64,229 appeals are pending before the Supreme Court.The table below indicates the details:.In a question by Congress MP Digvijay Singh on the number of Indian citizens that have adopted foreign citizenship after relinquishing Indian citizenship since 2017, and the reasons for the same, Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs V Muraleedharan in his response stated, “As per information available, 6,08,162 Indian citizens relinquished their citizenship and acquired foreign citizenship, since 2017 and the reasons are personal to them.”On the details sought regarding assets owned in India and number of tax payers who relinquished Indian citizenship, the Minister mentioned that the same are not maintained by the Ministry of External Affairs..The proceedings of the Lower House at the Parliament today saw the passing of The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill, 2021, which were first introduced in the Lok Sabha on Friday amid strong protests by opposition members. Moving a statutory resolution for disapproval of the ordinances which were promulgated to amend the Central Vigilance Act, 2003 and the Delhi Police Special Establishment Act, 1946, Congress MP Manish Tewari said the same were “arbitrary, capricious.”“Any democracy is as strong or as weak as the institutions that support it… Unfortunately, over the last seven-and-half years, this government has made every attempt to dismantle the system of checks and balances which are intrinsic to our constitutional scheme...The Bills moved today are yet another milestone towards that direction,” Tewari said..Today, despite strong objections by the opposition parties, the Bills were passed after a voice vote from members present in Parliament. The Bills seek to extend the tenures of the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED) Directors from 2 years to year-long extensions which can be granted thrice, potentially extending their terms to 5 years.