• A virtual court is a unique contribution of the eCourts Project.
• A pilot virtual court was launched in August 2018 in Delhi for traffic offences and it has been a great success.
• Virtual courts have been successfully tried out in Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.
• A virtual court is a simple programme through which a person can find out if a challan has been issued to him or her through a search facility.
• If a challan has been issued, the details are available online and the person may plead guilty or not guilty.
• On a guilty plea, the minimum fine is imposed and on a not-guilty plea, the case is electronically transferred to the traffic court for trial.
• At the end of the day, a judge reviews the cases and disposes of them electronically depending on the option exercised.
• One judge is all it takes to manage the virtual court for Delhi or an entire state.
• With the launch of virtual courts, the daily footfalls to the courts have drastically reduced and thousands have pleaded guilty and paid the fine electronically.
• The virtual court system has the potential of being upscaled and other petty offences attracting a fine such as delayed payments of local taxes or compoundable offences can also be dealt with by virtual courts.
• This will ease the burden on conventional courts and therefore must be strongly encouraged.

Source: The Hindu