Judgments will be made available in a free text search portal with accessibility features: Justice Chandrachud
Justice Chandrachud announced that the Supreme Court will soon be part of the National Judicial Data Grid, making all Supreme Court decisions accessible through a free text search portal with features for persons with disabilities. Efforts are underway to enhance digital infrastructure for easier access to justice for individuals with disabilities, including audio-captchas and screen-reader-friendly case files. Over seventy-five lakh High Court judgments will be freely available for visually impaired individuals without reliance on third-party software developers.
While speaking at the third Professor Shamnad Basheer Memorial Lecture organized by the LiveLaw, Justice DY Chandrachud, said that the Supreme Court will join the National Judicial Data Grid in the near future and all the decisions of the Supreme Court will be made available in a free text search portal. Those judgments will have accessibility features built into them for the easy access of persons with disabilities.
Delivering the lecture on the topic Making Disability Rights Real: Addressing accessibility and more, Justice Chandrachud said that the e-Committee of the Supreme Court has been making efforts to make the digital infrastructure of the judicial system more accessible to persons with disabilities.
‘We have introduced audio-captchas on the Supreme Court as well as High Court websites to ensure that visually impaired professionals face no hindrances in looking up the cause list or the case status. We have also ensured that case files are readable and screen-reader-friendly to make them accessible to persons with disabilities. The e-committee in collaboration with National Informatics Centre (NIC) has also created a judgment search portal accessible to persons with disability. Over seventy-five lakh judgments of the High Courts will be freely available for access. The visually challenged will not have to confront the unwillingness of private software developers to accommodate their needs”, Justice Chandrachud said.