Digital Dreams, Analog Dysfunction: India’s E-Courts Phase III Stalled by Administrative Inertia, Research Finds

The net result is a digitally enabled denial of justice, where technology amplifies existing inequalities instead of bridging them.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | December 5, 2025

The Government of India’s flagship E-Courts Mission Project Phase III (2023–2027), launched with a substantial budget of ₹7,210 crore (approximately USD 870 million), is suffering from a massive disconnect between its high ambition and on-the-ground reality, according to findings published in the India Judicial Research Report 2025.

The project was intended to be a transformative initiative for judicial digitization, with goals including the universal adoption of e-filing, expansion of virtual courts, full operationalization of e-Sewa Kendras, and the deployment of advanced Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) tools for predictive analytics and smart scheduling.

However, the independent assessment reveals that the judiciary is struggling with deeply rooted issues, including a shortage of trained personnel, inadequate digital infrastructure, and fragmented technological systems that ultimately impede rather than facilitate access to justice.

Failure Rooted in Administrative Resistance

The report emphasizes that the failure of judicial digitization is not a matter of technological inability; India possesses the competence required, as demonstrated by the seamless functionality of the income-tax e-filing system. Instead, the crisis is fundamentally structural, attributed primarily to administrative resistance, weak accountability, and a stagnant institutional culture within the judiciary.

This deep-seated malaise manifests as technological stagnation resulting from human and institutional inertia rather than mere financial or technical constraints.

Case Study: The Delhi E-Filing Portal

The systemic deficiencies are exemplified by the malfunctioning Delhi High Court’s E-Filing Portal. Despite its objective to modernize court access and streamline filings, the portal has become an obstacle, marked by procedural opacity and instability. Practitioners report persistent technical failures, frequent crashes during crucial filing windows, and the rejection of uploaded petitions based on vague “technical error” messages.

Crucially, the system has been undermined by human control. Although cases are “e-filed,” they still require physical verification and approval by registry officials, meaning the process remains opaque and vulnerable to corruption behind a digital façade. This system of hybrid dysfunction leads to delayed or denied filings, sometimes causing limitation periods to expire, particularly for public interest litigants whose petitions are delayed under the pretext of “technical scrutiny”.

The net result is a digitally enabled denial of justice, where technology amplifies existing inequalities instead of bridging them. The report notes that without mandatory digital training for judges and court staff, strict implementation monitoring, and a cultural shift toward transparency, the multi-billion-rupee digital reforms will remain superficial. Ultimately, the promise of “e-justice” risks becoming a bureaucratic maze—a cybernetic mask for analog dysfunction.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.

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