Maharashtra is set to become the second State to implement the Central government’s Interoperable Criminal Justice System (ICJS), which will act as a common platform for all government agencies to share data about prisoners across the State.
Justice Abhay Oka of Bombay High Court, all set to take oath as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, spoke about the system to The Hindu . “I personally visited the jails in Nagpur, Nashik and Pune. [During my time as] chairman of the computer committee, a programme titled ICJS was sponsored by the Central government where a link will be established between a system in courts and in the jails,” he said.
Justice Oka said the platform will have data on bail applications, convictions and so on.“We have started a pilot project at Nanded and Sadanand Date, who is an IPS [officer] in New Delhi, is in charge of it,” he said.
Rajesh Pavaskar, the central project coordinator at the Bombay HC, said, “Only Warangal in Andhra Pradesh has implemented ICJS, which integrates the existing software from the police and prison department along with that of the courts.”
He said, “Under the leadership of Justice Oka, meetings have been conducted with higher officials from both the departments, and they are developing an application programming interface for integration and transfer of all the data.”
A highly placed source in the Criminal Investigation Department confirmed the same and said, “In Maharashtra, the initiative was taken up by Justice Oka. He led us and invited all the stakeholders to come together. A meeting was held in January where officials from police, prisons, court, prosecution and forensic department came together.” He said, “The aim is to share relevant data with all government agencies so that the police can keep a tab on which prisoners are let off when.”
