Digital courts concept delayed due to tech fears

The project to digitalise the Sri Lankan court system, which was launched in 2016 with the first pilot implemented in the Matara courts, has since stalled due to some individuals showing fear over this shift, the Prime Minister’s office revealed.

It said many countries in the world had been able to accelerate the exchange of information in government departments and organisations through the digitalisation process and this concept was being implemented in a number of Asian countries.

“While we are doing the initial steps, India has launched their second digital courts system in Andhra Pradesh. India’s first digital court was launched by the Hyderabad High Court in 2016 and recently they introduced their second digital court saying that the process of paperless justice has speeded up the process of vindication of rights,” the PM’s office added.

It said the judicial system in Sri Lanka was complicated with a large amount of information from a large number of cases. Digitalisation has proven the best solution to this problem. Even with the granting of all permission by the Sri Lankan Government, the digital courts concept has been delayed by some people who are afraid of the new technology.

“In addition to the digital courts concept, the Cabinet of Ministers has approved the utilisation of digitalisation as an economic development strategy on 27 of July 2017 and now it is being designed by specialists to initiate the project,” the statement from the PM’s office added.