India’s judiciary carries one of the largest case backlogs in the world, with over 5.5 crore pending cases. The government’s eCourts mission is pushing digital transformation, but the gap between policy intent and effective, resilient technology remains considerable. This BoF hopes to bring together builders, civic tech contributors, and open data advocates for a conversation that doesn’t happen often enough.
We’ll open by taking stock of what open-source tools and infrastructure already exist — in India and globally — for justice systems and public institutions, and where the FOSS community has significantly shaped outcomes. Earlier phases of digital policy programmes actively centred open-source tools and development processes to drive innovation and reduce proprietary dependencies. But as technology evolves and AI/ML solutions enter the picture, new questions arise: what should institutional stakeholders — such as judges, court administrators, and policymakers — understand about open-source as a community, how it works, and what it can deliver? How do we communicate open approaches to problem framing, requirements building, and tooling to public decision-makers encountering these ideas for the first time?
From there, the conversation opens up. We want to explore where the FOSS community can play a stronger, more deliberate role in Indian public sector innovation — not just as implementers, but as shapers of what gets built and how. A key goal is to develop specific, actionable problem statements from broad policy challenges, and to explore how a technical community can help craft a message and vocabulary that actually lands with decision-makers.
The details will develop as the conversation does — we see this BoF as much about figuring out the right questions as it is about answering them. If you work on civic tech, legal tech, open data, or e-governance — or simply care about access to justice — come argue, share, and help us figure this out.
Discussion Format
Brief context-setting (~10–15 mins), followed by open, moderator-steered discussion. No formal presentations — just people in a room who care about the same problem.
Proposed By
DAKSH - a Bangalore-based think-tank focused on law and justice system reforms and access to justice.
