Forensic Science and the Digital Transformation of Justice: Evaluating India’s Virtual Court Model in Comparison with Global Practices

FORENSIC SCIENCE AND THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF
JUSTICE: EVALUATING INDIA’S VIRTUAL COURT MODEL IN
COMPARISON WITH GLOBAL PRACTICESThe global catastrophe has had a huge impact on India as well as on the Indian judiciary.
Throughout India, all the courts have been suspended for more than two weeks, leading to a
pause throughout trial proceedings. Access to justice is a constitutional right 1 in order to
ensure that there is no infringement of human rights and to optimize social isolation, the
judiciary has turned to virtual justice. India's first virtual court was launched in Faridabad in
2019. Until then, relatively little attempt has been made to convert traditional courts into
virtual courts. On 26 November 2019, the President of India unveiled an application called
'Supreme Court Vidhik Anuvaad Software,' which is capable of translating English judicial
records into nine vernacular languages and vice versa. The Official Multilingual Mobile
Application of the Supreme Court of India will also be released to provide accurate real-time
access to case status, review screen, judgements to lawyers and litigants, daily orders, etc.
Much technical advancement has been made in the judiciary, such as capturing testimony by
video conferencing 2 , but a significant change to virtual courts has arisen as a result of the
current Covid-19pandemic. Before delving into the key findings and recommendations of the
PSC, one question considered by it is of immense importance. Is a court a place or a service? If
a court is indeed a service, then it is simpler for it to function online. On the other hand, if a
court is a place, more than a service, then that may bring nuances and complications of its own
as far as the digitisation of courtrooms is concerned.