The National Judicial Data Grid (NJDG) is a concept and an online national repository of data relating to cases instituted, pending, and disposed of by courts across India. It was built as part of Phase II of the e-Courts Project, a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, and was launched around 2015 to address the problem of judicial pendency and lack of transparency. The NJDG's primary purpose is to work as a monitoring tool to identify, manage, and reduce the massive backlog of cases in the Indian judicial system.
The mechanism of the NJDG involves integrating case data from over 18,735 District and subordinate Courts and all High Courts, with the data being updated on a near real-time basis. This platform, developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in coordination with the Supreme Court's Computer Cell, provides granular data up to the Taluka level. It allows litigants and the public to access case status information, orders, and judgments for both civil and criminal cases, utilizing elastic search technology. The NJDG connects directly to the e-Courts Project and is recognized as a significant innovation under the government's Ease of Doing Business initiative.
A major recent change occurred on September 14, 2023, when the Supreme Court of India onboarded its case data onto the NJDG, completing the integration of all three tiers of the Indian judiciary. This move, in line with an 'Open Data Policy', made the Supreme Court's real-time data on pendency, institution, and disposal of cases publicly accessible for the first time. The core function of the NJDG as a data repository and monitoring tool for pendency has remained the same.