INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: THE ROAD TO SPEEDIER JUSTICE

(Text of talk delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabad High Court, Allahabad on 20.11.2005 in judicial workshop on 'Cyber Laws, Cyber Forensics and E-Governance in Judiciary' at National Judicial Academy Bhopal. It has been partly modified since then)

Fair, inexpensive and quick dispensation of justice is the ultimate aim of every legal system. However, usually it fails to do so. In the novel 'Bleak House' by Charles Dickens, it is said,

'This is court of chancery – which so exhausts finances, patience, hope'.

In recent times, it has been repeated by Lord Denning in his own way {Allen Vs. Alfred McAlpine 1968 (1) All ER 543},

'Law's delays have been intolerable ... They have lasted so long as to turn justice sour'

So true of our legal system. Is information technology the panacea for soured justice? What role can computers have in the justice delivery system?

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS ON THE INTERNET

(Text of Speech delivered by Justice Yatindra Singh, Judge Allahabad High Court Allahabad on 31st July, 2005 at Judges' Round Table Conference on IPR held at Kolkata)

In the 1970's, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn figured out a way of splitting information into small "packets" and sending it from one computer to another in such a way that the packets could be put back together when it reached its destination. This method of splitting information into packets and putting them back together again is called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This process can be carried out even if there is a network of computers because every computer has an address called an Internet Protocol (IP) Address, which is made up of numbers separated by dots, and a packet is like a postcard with the address of the sender as well as of the person to whom it is being sent. A computer in the network would figure out whether it has been sent to it or not and if it is not sent to it then it will pass it on in the direction of the computer to which it is being sent. This way of getting a packet to its destination is called Internet Protocol (IP).

PATENTS: THE TASK AHEAD

Agreement on the Trade related aspect of intellectual property rights (TRIPS) is one of the agreements of the World Trade organisation (WTO) document. We being members of the WTO have to accept it. It talks about following seven kinds of Intellectual Property Rights:

1. Copyright and Related Rights
2. Trademarks
3. Geographical Indications
4. Industrial designs
5. Patents
6. Layout - designs (Topographies) of Integrated Circuits
7. Protection of Undisclosed Information