AP govt rolls out OLCMS to enable proper legal recourse

Amaravati, Feb 24 (PTI): Andhra Pradesh has rolled out the Online Legal Case Monitoring System (OLCMS) to bring in order and promptness in responding to the unending litigation as the government is now battling a staggering 1,98,781 cases in courts.

With about 8,000 'contempt of court' cases pending against officers, including IAS, the OLCMS is intended to help the administration take ''proper legal recourse for litigations, where the government is a party, to minimise contempt proceedings.'' OLCMS will facilitate government departments and officers to manage and monitor cases pending in different courts, a senior bureaucrat said.

The e-Committee of the Supreme Court has recently given its approval for OLCMS, which will use the AP High Court's Application Protocol Interface that will enable close monitoring of cases related to each department.

Topping the chart is Revenue Department that has a staggering 48,100 cases, majority of them relating to land issues, pending against it.

Home Department has 46,060, Law 43,707, Panchayat Raj and Rural Development 8,836 and Municipal Administration Department 8,299 cases pending.

Fifty other departments and heads of departments have less than 10 cases each pending against their name, according to ''legacy data'' obtained from the High Court API.

Each department has now appointed a nodal officer as well as a middle-level officer exclusively for dealing with legal matters and they have been imparted training on effective use of the new system.

''We have sensitised them on their respective roles and how OLCMS helps them in tracking the court cases, maintaining complete case history and taking necessary follow-up action. This will go a long-way in avoiding contempt proceedings, which have been alarmingly growing in recent days,'' a senior bureaucrat told PTI.

At the state level, senior IAS officer Babu Ahamed has been appointed as the Nodal Officer.

''The government has taken the court cases issue very seriously. Apart from hampering the regular administration, the litigation is many a time causing embarrassment to the government as well as individual bureaucrats. Onus is on us to avoid this through swift action,'' a Special Chief Secretary observed.

In the High Court, the Government Pleader's Office is being fully automated for scanning petition copies in real-time and making them handy for the respondent department to promptly file the counter.

''This was the critical element hitherto missing, leading to avoidable adverse outcome, particularly ending up in contempt of court proceedings. The OLCMS will eliminate this major lapse and enable the department head concerned to respond in quick time to any petition,'' the bureaucrat noted.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)