The Supreme Court is contemplating the feasibility of developing an inhouse web application, which can be owned and controlled internally, to ensure seamless functioning of virtual courts through videoconferencing.
This follows concerns being flagged over ownership and security issues of web applications after the Supreme Court started weighing plans to conduct more virtual courts during the lockdown, said people with direct knowledge of the matter.
The National Informatics Centre (NIC) may be roped in to explore the viability of creating such a web application, sources added. SC currently holds virtual courts using ‘Vidyo’, a web application.
“It has been brought to our notice that the ownership of the said application has changed hands. It is being actively considered whether the Supreme Court should make a web application of its own to avoid any probable difficulties in future,” said a senior official.
Another web application, which was considered by SC for holding virtual courts, was Zoom. This has been dropped due to security concerns. The MHA earlier this week warned that the app was not safe for use.
The government’s warning came after India’s nodal cyber security agency –– Computer Emergency Response Team of India — warned of the app’s vulnerability.
However, sources said even if NIC comes up with an inhouse application, it’s functioning will depend upon and be subject to signal strength/bandwidth available to the end users.
“The chief advantages of building an internal web application are ownership, control and security. Connectivity will obviously be contingent on the available bandwidth,” said the official quoted above. ET had on April 20 reported that SC is working towards making virtual litigation a reality by augmenting the number of virtual courts.
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