Sylhet Correspondent :
A total of 20 courts of Sylhet district will start using a digital system in recording witness statements from March 2.
With this in place, the courts will no longer be required to write down witness statements, which can be submitted through audio-video recordings. Sufficient computers have been installed inside courtrooms to start the new system, which will make court proceedings paperless.
The deposition will be keyed in by the court stenographer on a computer and the draft will be visible to the judge, accused, witnesses as well as lawyers on their screens for review to eliminate faults. Once the draft is approved by the concerned parties, the deposition will be signed by those involved. This file will be uploaded and get appended to the case file. All preparations for the implementation of the modern deposition system are being completed. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Law Minister Anisul Huq, Finance Minister AMA Muhith and other senior officials are scheduled to visit Sylhet on March 2 to inaugurate the paperless deposition system in 20 courts of Sylhet, a high official of the Supreme Court said. Sources said that after the successful completion of the modern deposition system, all trial courts in the country would implement the new system. The justice system in Bangladesh is burdened by a huge backlog of cases due to a lack of procedural reforms, the sources said. As a result, the vulnerable sections of society have limited access to redressal. If the digital system is implemented, the backlog of cases could be reduced quickly and the judiciary would be more transparent, they added.
The Supreme Court, in technical and financial collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has undertaken a project known as JUST (Judicial Strengthening) to strengthen its capacity to administer the court system efficiently and reduce the backlog of cases and lay a foundation for better access to justice, especially for vulnerable groups such as the poor, women and children.
Rezaul Al Masum, ICT Manager, JUST, said the modern witness deposition mechanism, with the help of ICT tools, will make recording of statements transparent and more efficient. It will eventually help reduce the overall case disposal time, resulting in reducing the backlog.
“The courts have to maintain all records in physical format, either in files or registers. Such large amounts of data in paper form is neither easy to retrieve nor safe. It’s prone to tampering and environmental degradation,” said Masum. Apart from this, judges and even courts change during the course of the judicial process. Often, witnesses and the accused change their statements or turn hostile.
A senior official of the UNDP said that this would save precious time and cost and speed up overall service delivery of the courts. The recordings will be kept in an encrypted form on the servers. The judge can access these recordings using the software interface, which will help him or her to recall the past proceedings easily and track the progress. He explained that by using video conferencing, any person can depose from a remote place, using a video conferencing setup, either hardware or software-based with an internet connection.
A total of 20 courts of Sylhet district will start using a digital system in recording witness statements from March 2.
With this in place, the courts will no longer be required to write down witness statements, which can be submitted through audio-video recordings. Sufficient computers have been installed inside courtrooms to start the new system, which will make court proceedings paperless.
The deposition will be keyed in by the court stenographer on a computer and the draft will be visible to the judge, accused, witnesses as well as lawyers on their screens for review to eliminate faults. Once the draft is approved by the concerned parties, the deposition will be signed by those involved. This file will be uploaded and get appended to the case file. All preparations for the implementation of the modern deposition system are being completed. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha, Law Minister Anisul Huq, Finance Minister AMA Muhith and other senior officials are scheduled to visit Sylhet on March 2 to inaugurate the paperless deposition system in 20 courts of Sylhet, a high official of the Supreme Court said. Sources said that after the successful completion of the modern deposition system, all trial courts in the country would implement the new system. The justice system in Bangladesh is burdened by a huge backlog of cases due to a lack of procedural reforms, the sources said. As a result, the vulnerable sections of society have limited access to redressal. If the digital system is implemented, the backlog of cases could be reduced quickly and the judiciary would be more transparent, they added.
The Supreme Court, in technical and financial collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), has undertaken a project known as JUST (Judicial Strengthening) to strengthen its capacity to administer the court system efficiently and reduce the backlog of cases and lay a foundation for better access to justice, especially for vulnerable groups such as the poor, women and children.
Rezaul Al Masum, ICT Manager, JUST, said the modern witness deposition mechanism, with the help of ICT tools, will make recording of statements transparent and more efficient. It will eventually help reduce the overall case disposal time, resulting in reducing the backlog.
“The courts have to maintain all records in physical format, either in files or registers. Such large amounts of data in paper form is neither easy to retrieve nor safe. It’s prone to tampering and environmental degradation,” said Masum. Apart from this, judges and even courts change during the course of the judicial process. Often, witnesses and the accused change their statements or turn hostile.
A senior official of the UNDP said that this would save precious time and cost and speed up overall service delivery of the courts. The recordings will be kept in an encrypted form on the servers. The judge can access these recordings using the software interface, which will help him or her to recall the past proceedings easily and track the progress. He explained that by using video conferencing, any person can depose from a remote place, using a video conferencing setup, either hardware or software-based with an internet connection.
