Court of Appeal to go hi-tech

The Court of Appeal is getting ready to go online and introduce many technological advancements including electronic case filing and management system for the first time. The website with judgements and other information will be accessible through http://www.courtofappeal.lk

The relevant project kick-off meeting took place recently at the Superior Court Complex chaired by the President of the Court of Appeal Sathyaa Hettige at a simple ceremony where the judges of the Court of Appeal, the President and Secretary BASL and representatives from ICTA were present.

Speaking on the occasion the President of the Court of Appeal thanked ICTA officials — Chairman Prof. P. W. Epasinghe, CEO Reshan Dewapura, Director/Legal Advisor Jayantha Fernando and Re-engineering Government Programme Head D. C. Dissanayake and Programme Specialist Ganesh Wijenayake, who had worked closely with the Judges of the Court of Appeal as well as the Court of Appeal Registry staff.

The website will contain the Daily Court List, with information about the cases to be taken up in all benches of the Court of Appeal daily. Initially the judgements of the Court of appeal delivered during 2011 as well as 2010, which are made available in electronic format, will be posted on the website. The Judgements will be updated as and when electronic versions of the judgements are made available and eventually searching facilities will be introduced. The Site will also contain the Court of Appeal Rules (as amended).

The website will be initially hosted and maintained with the technical assistance of ICTA. But eventually its operations and maintenance will be transferred to the Registry of the Court of Appeal, once the required infrastructure is in place.

In addition to the website, an electronic case filing and management system will be added to the Court of Appeal system enabling lawyers and law firms to file cases via internet. Initially this will be launched as a pilot project until it is familiar to all stakeholders. The first month of its operation could be used as an opportunity to refine and update its features as well as to check its resilience. For instance this proposed system will facilitate the bench orders to be delivered from the court itself at the judges’ discretion, enabling much faster service and speedy issuance of certified copies of the judgments from the Court of Appeal registry

  ICTA Programme Specialist Ganesh Wijenayake gave a comprehensive overview of the Court of Appeal project with the detailed project plan and sought the unstinted cooperation of BASL to ensure its success. He explained further that this project was undertaken within the e-SriLanka Development Project.