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E-judiciary to go nationwide
12 Jan
2007
Shamini
Darshni
PUTRAJAYA: Delays, postponements
and huge case backlogs will be greatly reduced when courts nationwide go
online.
Encouraged by the positive
results of a pilot project involving 11 courtrooms, the government has
decided to expand the e-judiciary project nationwide as soon as possible.
"We are studying the proposal for a nationwide roll-out, with a decision
expected in March," Minister in the Prime Minister’s
Department Datuk Seri Nazri
Aziz said.
Yesterday, he handed over the project from the government to the judiciary’s
representative, Chief Justice Tun Ahmad Fairuz Sheikh Abdul Halim. The
11 courts included the Federal Court, the Court of Appeal and the civil and
criminal High Courts.
The electronic court system, an electronic government (e-government)
application, aims to provide the judiciary and government agencies, such as
the police, easier access to court documents.
Asked whether e-judiciary would help address the issue of some 13,000
prisoners awaiting case judgments, Nazri said it
would.
"With e-courts and, later, video-conferencing, there would be no need
for (the accused) to be in court so it will help reduce the number of
postponements."
On Tuesday, Deputy Internal Security Minister Datuk
Fu Ah Kiow said of 33,600 inmates, remand prisoners
and juvenile detainees, more than 20,000 were awaiting court mention dates
while over 13,000 were awaiting court judgments.
There are three main components to e-judiciary: The case management system,
the court recording and transcription system and a common information
technology infrastructure which includes email and Internet services.
It also aims to provide easier access to judiciary services, increase the
availability of and access to court information, reduce litigation costs and
speed up cases.
"I believe time is of the essence and the sooner we have the system in
place, the better, especially to help reduce delays and postponements,"
said Nazri.
The pilot stage was developed by Solsis (M) Sdn Bhd
at a cost of RM27 million.
Nazri was unsure what the total cost would be once
the project was implemented nationwide.
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