New Delhi, Aug. 8 (PTI): Trial courts are in for a hi-tech overhaul with the judiciary lining up a series of bold steps to rid the system of corruption and project a people-friendly image.

A pilot scheme to give this facelift is being implemented in Delhi by computerising about 250 courts. In the offing are beaming front office managers, to guide litigants through the concrete wilderness of court complexes, and a voice inquiry system providing information about any case at the push of a key.

Setting pace for the reforms is a website of the capital’s courts www.Delhidistrictcourts.Nic.Yn.

Launched last November by then Chief Justice of India V.. Khare, the site offers access to all orders and other details of the courts in the capital. Available on the site a day in advance are cause lists of the courts and the bail applications listed for hearing. If things go as planned, the website address may soon shrink to www.Delhicourts.Nic.In, sources said, admitting that the present address is a bit long.

In the next stage, facilitation centres, similar to a hotel reception area, would come up in the courts. While the centres will have to be built in the existing complexes, under-construction courts have it integrated in their design, the sources said. These measures would go a long way in checking corruption among court staff, as it would reduce the litigant’s need to depend on them.

The judiciary has also planned hitech ways to deliver justice. One such measure would be the transmission of bail orders with digital signatures of judges to jails via Internet the very moment the court pronounces it.

This would avoid delay in justice as an undertrial who has been granted bail would not have to wait till the order for his release reaches the jail. Such delay invariably happens in bigger states where the jail and the court are miles apart and orders are despatched by snail mail.

The reforms, though, come with necessary precautions. To keep away snooping hackers, the software installed in courts has a built-in firewall, courtesy the National Informatics Centre.