By Yoshitha Perera
The existing challenges and deficiencies of the legal system were magnified as a result of the sudden Covid-19 outbreak last year. Justice systems around the world are turning to digitisation with the hope of making tomorrow’s justice systems more efficient, fairer, and less expensive.
In Sri Lanka, as courts were closed for a period as a result of the pandemic, overcrowded prisons and delays in the process of delivering justice affected the entire justice system, and there was a concerning number of pending cases.
In this backdrop, it is vital to consider the possibilities of reorganising the court and prison systems into digital platforms and adapting the use of information and communication technology within the legal system to offer a more viable solution – which Sri Lanka is in the process of doing.
The Ministry of Justice compiled a feasible plan to make the move to adopt digital-based litigation systems, which is in the process of being implemented. In that respect, Minister of Justice Ali Sabry PC secured funds allocated by the Government to digitise the judicial system. 
Digitisation is one of the key strategies in mitigating the inefficiencies of the judicial system in Sri Lanka amongst other strategies such as improving the physical infrastructure of the courts’ facilities, restructuring and reforming institutions under the purview of the Ministry, and strengthening co-operation with donor agencies to obtain maximum benefits.
Court automation and digitisation
Speaking with The Sunday Morning, Justice Ministry Additional Secretary (Reforms) Thushara Suraweera said that a quadripartite agreement was signed in February 2021 by the Monistry of Justice to execute the court automation and digitisation project, with the Ministry of Technology, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), and the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
He said: “In 2017, we completed a comprehensive study on court automation with the support of the ICTA and by contracting Ernst & Young (EY) as the consultancy firm.”
Suraweera said that the work processes, formulated by EY in 2017, are being validated again with all stakeholders, and an open and competitive procurement process commenced in April 2021.
“The plan is to develop a comprehensive court automation solution where every court in Sri Lanka will be able to function digitally. Currently, we are trying to expedite the completion of the procurement process, and we planned to select and award the contract to a suitable solutions provider before the end of 2021,” he said.
Minister of Justice Sabry appointed a Subcommittee on Court Automation and Digitisation, and the main goal of the committee is to support and facilitate the project.
Explaining further, Suraweera said that the project will be implemented in three phases; initially, a pilot phase with 12 courts covering all types of courts; 100 courts in the second phase; and the final phase will see the digitisation of all the courts in the country.
“Until this comprehensive solution is in place, the Ministry of Justice is executing a series of quick-win digitisation tasks to address the immediate requirements, especially considering the current Covid-19 situation. These quick-win projects will also assist in maintaining the momentum and will make stakeholders familiar with the ultimate solution,” he added.
Short-term digitisation tasks
Explaining the short-term digitisation tasks that have been implemented by the Ministry, Additional Secretary Suraweera said that currently, there are multiple initiatives being taken with the Department of Prisons to produce prisoners before courts. All prisons are currently using Skype technology to produce inmates online for date extensions at magistrate courts and the Court of Appeal is using video conferencing (VC) Zoom technology with three main prisons for even case hearing.
Proper VC facilities are also being tested in a few prisons with the support of a few donor agencies. Suraweera was referring to the setting up of 35 video conference facilities at 23 courthouses and 12 prisons with the support of the ICTA.
“The Prisons Department is planning to use these video conferencing facilities initially for remand extensions to connect with the courts and also for remand prisoner visitations, so that relatives can meet their family members at prisons, virtually. We have discussed with the Department of Prisons to set up special video conference rooms for this purpose at the prisons,” Suraweera explained.
He also added that the Ministry is providing laptops to a number of courts to be used during the pandemic situation for emergency hearings until the Ministry sets up proper video conferencing facilities.
Furthermore, as instructed by the Ministry of Justice and Secretary Priyantha Mayadunne, officials from the Ministry are visiting the courts around the country to evaluate the immediate, medium-term, and long-term requirements and will be providing digitisation tools to satisfy some of these requirements as a short-term measure within this year, Suraweera said.
“With special requests from the Supreme Court, we will be immediately providing facilities for them to display case information in each courtroom with digital display boards as a dynamic court information-proving solution, so that information dissemination is efficient while human presence at courtrooms is restricted.”
Furthermore, a document scanning and digitisation project will also be implemented immediately at three selected courts – the Colombo Commercial High Court and the High Courts in Kandy and Matara – with a solution to search, retrieve, and view all related case documents at their fingertips.
Comprehensive court automation solution
The high-level process software application will be formulated by the Justice Ministry to setup the court automation system with the support of the ICTA and EY. Explaining the system, Additional Secretary Suraweera said that the core components of the software application system will include e-filing, court management, and court recording and transcription features.
He added: “The comprehensive court automation system will not be limited to the areas mentioned; it will progress accordingly.”
In the e-filing process, the lawyers, legal firms, the public, and relevant government agencies can file documents to the courts electronically through a designated portal or a counter established at the court premises.
This solution will also be enabled for usage on mobile devices, by establishing a special call centre. Chatbots will be also established to provide the latest question-and-answer facilities.
All the access rights and facilities to the solution will be implemented with high security measures of international standards at the highest level, Suraweera added.
The software application will also provide the facility to manage the day-to-day administrative and human resources functions related to the court management system.
The system shall contain data pertaining to the courts’ locations, court calendars, will keep minutes, give notifications, have specific routing paths for each matter type, etc.
When it comes to the court recording system, the software ensures that court events and notes are accurately captured in both audio and video formats and the latter is used for transcriptions.
Furthermore, this particular court system will ensure integrations with key and required third-party systems and agencies such as the Department of Prisons, Department of Motor Traffic, Government Analyst’s Department, Department for Registrations of Persons, Registrar General’s Department, and the Police as well as banks, payment gateways, and social media through application protocol interfaces (APIs).
The Document Management System (DMS) component will ensure that all case-related documents are scanned, indexed, and digitised and made part and parcel of the solution and could be accessed for viewing through the system with appropriate user access rights.
Additional Secretary Suraweera added that the comprehensive court automation solution will be piloted in 12 selected courthouses by the third quarter of 2022 and then rolled out to 100 selected cour houses during the period of 2023-2024.
Digitisation of the prison system
Efforts are also being made towards the digitisation of the Department of Prisons, including the Prisoner Management Information System.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Department of Prisons Assistant Director (ICT) Lasantha Gunaratne said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department initiated a system where family members of the prisoners could pre-book their physical visits, adding that a web application was made for this purpose.
He said: “Commissioner General of Prisons Thusahra Upuldeniya had advised to commence work on this e-platform to avoid traffic at the prisons when prisoners’ family members come to visit.”
Gunaratne said that expanding on the above project, the Department initiated video conferencing, so now, family members can meet the prisoners online.
He explained: “To confirm the identification of the family member, the Department issues a number to the particular family member, and they can join the video conference by entering that number.
“These e-platforms were developed without using external resources. The present system was developed by a system developer named Ashen Madushanka who is attached to the Prisons Department.”
He also added that the Prisons Department will soon join the Ministry of Justice in developing and implementing the court automation solution.
Digitisation is one of the key strategies in mitigating the inefficiencies of the judicial system in Sri Lanka amongst other strategies such as improving the physical infrastructure of the courts’ facilities, restructuring and reforming institutions under the purview of the Ministry, and strengthening co-operation with donor agencies to obtain maximum benefits.
Court automation and digitisation
Speaking with The Sunday Morning, Justice Ministry Additional Secretary (Reforms) Thushara Suraweera said that a quadripartite agreement was signed in February 2021 by the Monistry of Justice to execute the court automation and digitisation project, with the Ministry of Technology, the Information and Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), and the Judicial Services Commission (JSC).
He said: “In 2017, we completed a comprehensive study on court automation with the support of the ICTA and by contracting Ernst & Young (EY) as the consultancy firm.”
Suraweera said that the work processes, formulated by EY in 2017, are being validated again with all stakeholders, and an open and competitive procurement process commenced in April 2021.
“The plan is to develop a comprehensive court automation solution where every court in Sri Lanka will be able to function digitally. Currently, we are trying to expedite the completion of the procurement process, and we planned to select and award the contract to a suitable solutions provider before the end of 2021,” he said.
Minister of Justice Sabry appointed a Subcommittee on Court Automation and Digitisation, and the main goal of the committee is to support and facilitate the project.
Explaining further, Suraweera said that the project will be implemented in three phases; initially, a pilot phase with 12 courts covering all types of courts; 100 courts in the second phase; and the final phase will see the digitisation of all the courts in the country.
“Until this comprehensive solution is in place, the Ministry of Justice is executing a series of quick-win digitisation tasks to address the immediate requirements, especially considering the current Covid-19 situation. These quick-win projects will also assist in maintaining the momentum and will make stakeholders familiar with the ultimate solution,” he added.
Short-term digitisation tasks
Explaining the short-term digitisation tasks that have been implemented by the Ministry, Additional Secretary Suraweera said that currently, there are multiple initiatives being taken with the Department of Prisons to produce prisoners before courts. All prisons are currently using Skype technology to produce inmates online for date extensions at magistrate courts and the Court of Appeal is using video conferencing (VC) Zoom technology with three main prisons for even case hearing.
Proper VC facilities are also being tested in a few prisons with the support of a few donor agencies. Suraweera was referring to the setting up of 35 video conference facilities at 23 courthouses and 12 prisons with the support of the ICTA.
“The Prisons Department is planning to use these video conferencing facilities initially for remand extensions to connect with the courts and also for remand prisoner visitations, so that relatives can meet their family members at prisons, virtually. We have discussed with the Department of Prisons to set up special video conference rooms for this purpose at the prisons,” Suraweera explained.
He also added that the Ministry is providing laptops to a number of courts to be used during the pandemic situation for emergency hearings until the Ministry sets up proper video conferencing facilities.
Furthermore, as instructed by the Ministry of Justice and Secretary Priyantha Mayadunne, officials from the Ministry are visiting the courts around the country to evaluate the immediate, medium-term, and long-term requirements and will be providing digitisation tools to satisfy some of these requirements as a short-term measure within this year, Suraweera said.
“With special requests from the Supreme Court, we will be immediately providing facilities for them to display case information in each courtroom with digital display boards as a dynamic court information-proving solution, so that information dissemination is efficient while human presence at courtrooms is restricted.”
Furthermore, a document scanning and digitisation project will also be implemented immediately at three selected courts – the Colombo Commercial High Court and the High Courts in Kandy and Matara – with a solution to search, retrieve, and view all related case documents at their fingertips.
Comprehensive court automation solution
The high-level process software application will be formulated by the Justice Ministry to setup the court automation system with the support of the ICTA and EY. Explaining the system, Additional Secretary Suraweera said that the core components of the software application system will include e-filing, court management, and court recording and transcription features.
He added: “The comprehensive court automation system will not be limited to the areas mentioned; it will progress accordingly.”
In the e-filing process, the lawyers, legal firms, the public, and relevant government agencies can file documents to the courts electronically through a designated portal or a counter established at the court premises.
This solution will also be enabled for usage on mobile devices, by establishing a special call centre. Chatbots will be also established to provide the latest question-and-answer facilities.
All the access rights and facilities to the solution will be implemented with high security measures of international standards at the highest level, Suraweera added.
The software application will also provide the facility to manage the day-to-day administrative and human resources functions related to the court management system.
The system shall contain data pertaining to the courts’ locations, court calendars, will keep minutes, give notifications, have specific routing paths for each matter type, etc.
When it comes to the court recording system, the software ensures that court events and notes are accurately captured in both audio and video formats and the latter is used for transcriptions.
Furthermore, this particular court system will ensure integrations with key and required third-party systems and agencies such as the Department of Prisons, Department of Motor Traffic, Government Analyst’s Department, Department for Registrations of Persons, Registrar General’s Department, and the Police as well as banks, payment gateways, and social media through application protocol interfaces (APIs).
The Document Management System (DMS) component will ensure that all case-related documents are scanned, indexed, and digitised and made part and parcel of the solution and could be accessed for viewing through the system with appropriate user access rights.
Additional Secretary Suraweera added that the comprehensive court automation solution will be piloted in 12 selected courthouses by the third quarter of 2022 and then rolled out to 100 selected cour houses during the period of 2023-2024.
Digitisation of the prison system
Efforts are also being made towards the digitisation of the Department of Prisons, including the Prisoner Management Information System.
Speaking to The Sunday Morning, Department of Prisons Assistant Director (ICT) Lasantha Gunaratne said that before the Covid-19 pandemic, the Department initiated a system where family members of the prisoners could pre-book their physical visits, adding that a web application was made for this purpose.
He said: “Commissioner General of Prisons Thusahra Upuldeniya had advised to commence work on this e-platform to avoid traffic at the prisons when prisoners’ family members come to visit.”
Gunaratne said that expanding on the above project, the Department initiated video conferencing, so now, family members can meet the prisoners online.
He explained: “To confirm the identification of the family member, the Department issues a number to the particular family member, and they can join the video conference by entering that number.
“These e-platforms were developed without using external resources. The present system was developed by a system developer named Ashen Madushanka who is attached to the Prisons Department.”
He also added that the Prisons Department will soon join the Ministry of Justice in developing and implementing the court automation solution.