Indian Express: Chandigarh: Sunday,
August 14, 2016.
Although the
Punjab and Haryana High Court has spent a hefty amount of Rs. 21.45 lakh on
installing the “Dragon Software” which types judgments on dictation but the
software is not much in use as of now owing to the US-accent required for the
software.
The software
was purchased in August last year to cope up with the problem of acute shortage
of judgment writers and stenos across district courts in Punjab and Haryana.
However, as it was a software purchased from a US-based company it responds to
US-accent and is not much in use.
Total cost of
the Dragon Software is Rs. 39,000 per user and the high court has purchased 55
users costing a total of Rs. 21.45 lakh, as per the information provided under
the RTI Act.
Highly placed
sources in the district courts confirmed that they were not using the software
as they face a problem with the “accent” of the software. Sharing views on it,
a retired judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Mehtab Singh Gill,
asserted, “I don’t think that the software will work for courts in Punjab and
Haryana as the court language in the two states is Punjabi and Hindi,
respectively, and the judicial officers won’t be able to cope up with the
standards of English required for the software.”
Confirming
the same, the chairman of the Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Rajat Gautam,
said, “There is a shortage of stenos and judgment writers across the courts in
the two states. As the Dragon software is concerned, which types judgments on
dictation, there is a battery of lawyers who have installed it. The trend is
not there in courts but it will be in use soon.”
A retired
high court judge, while seeking anonymity said, “I retired in 2013 and at that
time the software had been recently installed. However, there was a problem
with the accent and the software was unable to comprehend the Indian accent.
There were plans to modify the software and the high court is trying to
introduce it after modification, I suppose. The software whenever will be fully
functional will be very useful as there is shortage of judgment writers and
stenos.”
He further
added that the software will also help in keeping secrecy of the judgments.
“When a judicial officer dictates judgment, the court staff might leak the
orders before they are pronounced. If the judicial officer dictates it to the
software, the orders are much more confidential,” he said.
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