Speaking at the launch of the e-court project in New Delhi, Kalam remarked that “a nation fails not because of economic progress but because of an increase in decision makers with small minds”.

“Our society is going through unique dynamics due to the shortage of leadership with nobility. The only hope the nation cherishes and looks to is the judiciary with its excellence and impeccable integrity... This casts a very heavy responsibility on the entire judicial system to live up to the expectations reposed in it and to maintain the sacred aura attached to it unsullied. Qualities of honesty and integrity are synonymous with each member of the judicial system,” he said.

Present at the function were Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Law Minister H R Bhardwaj and Communications and Information Technology Minister A Raja.

Describing the country’s judicial system as “dynamic” and “throbbing with life”, Kalam said “as the ultimate protector of human rights and the final resort for dispensation of justice, the citizens of India look up to this institution with hope.”

He even administered an oath to law students who attended the function, making them take a pledge to work sincerely to decrease pendency of cases.

Appreciating the e-courts project that aims at enhancing the efficiency of the judiciary by linking the courts electronically and digitising the services, Kalam said the government should now work towards creating an e-judiciary.

As part of the project, around 15,000 judicial officers would be provided with laptops.

“The Supreme Court should transform the present mission into an e-judiciary mission,” Kalam said. The objective of the e-judiciary, he said, would be to ensure seamless flow of information across various units of government, judiciary, institutions and citizens.

“My visualisation of a typical scenario is where the citizen files a case for a civil dispute of a piece of land in the e-court using his or her national ID Card and gets justice within two weeks’ time,” he said.

The e-courts project, to be implemented in three phases over a period of five years, entails setting up digital inter-connectivity between all the courts from the taluka level to the Supreme Court, video-conferencing facilities at the courts, digital archiving and creation of e-filing facility.