Supreme Court To Join NJDG Soon, Judgments Will Be Available In Free Text Search Portal With Accessibility Features : Justice Chandrachud

Supreme Court judge Justice DY Chandrachud on Saturday said that the Supreme Court will join the National Judicial Data Grid in the near future and that it will result in all the decisions of the Supreme Court being available in a free text search portal.Justice Chandrachud added that those judgments will have accessibility features built into them for the easy access of persons with disabilities. Justice Chandrachud made these revelations while speaking at the Third Professor Shamnad Basheer Memorial Lecture organized by the LiveLaw.At present, NJDG includes judgments of the High Courts, District Courts and Subordinate Courts.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 taking 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 thee 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."With the Supreme Court of India poised to join the National Judicial data grid in the near future, all decisions of the Supreme Court will be available in a free text search portal which has accessibility built into it", he added.Justice Chandrachud mentioned that through the initiative of the e-committee, the High Courts of Odisha and Kerala have adopted the paperless courts system. The digitization of files and court records will ensure that courts remain accessible to persons with disabilities.Hope to see visually challenged persons becoming judgesHe said that efforts have been taken to make the Indian judicial services more inclusive by removing barriers to the entry of persons with disability. He referred to the judgment in the caseVikash Kumar v. UPSC, which held that the exclusion of persons with over 50% visual impairment from qualifying for judicial services was not in consonance with the reasonable accommodation principle enshrined in the Persons of Disabilities Act, 2016."Of course, I will be the first to admit that much needs to be done to make our judiciary fully accessible to persons with disabilities. But I can say that at least we have taken the first steps in the right direction. My hope for the future, and a wish to the genie if I may, is that our country will see a counterpart of the visually challenged South African judge of the Constitutional court – Zak Yakoob – and many more in the High Courts and District Courts", Justice Chandrachud said.Legal data bases not accessible to persons with disabilities.The legal arguments that take place in a courtroom are often backed by substantive legal research, which forms an integral part of any legal professional. Legal databases form an ineluctable part of legal profession both for the academicians and professionals alike. However, most legal databases are inaccessible to persons with disabilities. The presence of access barriers such as unlabeled links, non-screen reader friendly web pages and pdf files, and the absence of alternative text descriptions for images on websites and blogs casts a chilling effect on the ability of persons with disabilities to produce quality scholarship and practice law. As a fraternity, our failure to provide for reasonable accommodation to persons with disabilities invalidates their everyday struggles and conveys a message to them that they are unwelcome in the legal profession. This in turn shapes their social reality within which they are constrained to lead their professional lives. The physical barriers are often symptomatic of an ableist attitudinal mindset.Law schools should provide reasonable accommodation to persons with disability In the legal profession, law schools could take the lead in tackling ableist environments. If we truly believe that products of law schools have a role to play in guiding law and policy making, we need to address the failure of our law schools and institutions to provide reasonable accommodation to persons with disability. This affects their ability to assert themselves and contribute effectively to the legal field, resulting in the creation of a legal fraternity that is largely under-inclusive. The invisibility of the identity of persons with disabilities within the legal fraternity is an affront to the constitutional guarantees of equality and...

Supreme Court To Join NJDG Soon, Judgments Will Be Available In Free Text Search Portal With Accessibility Features : Justice Chandrachud

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