Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan Mr. Justice Asif Saeed Khan Khosa inaugurated Mobile App, 1818 Supreme Court Call Center, Complete Video Link in 05 Courts, Judicial Esta Code, Research Center Progress, Website Enhancements in a ceremony held in Supreme Court of Pakistan today i.e. 20.11.2019. Addressing the launching ceremony of IT driven facilities, Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan said that they have landed in 21st century, the century of technology and advancement. Moreover, the newly launched IT based facilities would provide effective and efficient platform to discourage adjournments and to encourage legal fraternity to plead their cases without any delay. This would help improve disposal of cases and reduce the backlog and to get prompt justice from the courts by saving time and money.
The Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan further added that there was a perception that courts were hearing the cases of powerful people while cases of weaker were not tried, therefore he clarified with the facts and figures that there were around 3100 Judges and Judicial Magistrates in the whole country who have decided 3.6 million cases. All of them were not powerful but most of them were poor and weaker. Therefore, he added, “all are equal in the eyes of law”. His Lordship informed that the courts decided cases on merit without fear or favour and Judges were burning midnight oil by working under the existing resources instead of demanding more sources or amendments in the given law. The Supreme Court has decided all the criminal appeals pending since 25 years and only few were pending. The establishment of model trial courts across the country has given marvelous results and reduced the backlog of murder, narcotics, magistrate trials and civil appeals including rent and family cases. The model courts conducted trial of more than 73000 cases in short span of time and dispensed relief to the litigants by achieving target of zero pendency in most of districts or district headquarters across the country. Moreover, Supreme Court of Pakistan also took steps for Police Reforms and post of SP Complaints was created in each district that has also reduced 30% burden of cases on District Courts and 15% on High Courts.
At the end, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of Pakistan extended thanks to IT Committee of Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Mr. Justice Mushir Alam Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and comprising of Hon’ble Mr. Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Judge Supreme Court of Pakistan and other stakeholders including M/o Law & Justice Government of Pakistan, NADRA, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL-P) US Department of State, US Department of Justice and COMSATS Islamabad and the team for their untiring efforts, devotion and dedication to materialize the vision of expeditious and inexpensive justice through the application of information technology.
Earlier, Hon’ble Mr. Justice Mushir Alam Judge SCP, Incharge IT Affairs addressing the ceremony said that launching of IT based applications was litigant-friendly initiative towards transformation of the Supreme Court of Pakistan through Information Communication Technology (ICT) so as to make judicial system more responsive to the needs of people approaching court for redressal their grievances. These applications will benefit all stakeholder of justice sector including litigants, lawyers, general public, media and academicia. That will help them to track the cases and keep them abreast of latest updates of the cases in Supreme Court. The Hon’ble Judge gave following brief introduction of each newly launched IT Driven Application: -
? A New Android App for the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The Android Mobile App can be downloaded from the Google Play Store starting today i.e. 20th November 2019 after ceremony and carries the following features: -
• Case search with complete history of the case.
• Judgment search using multiple parameters
• Personalized cause list search for registered users
• Important news highlights
• Roster search
• User profile and registration
• Personalized notifications
? Supreme Court Call Center (1818)
Anyone can dial 1818 from their mobile phone or landline to avail the following services: -
• Cause list queries
• Judgment queries
• Case search queries
• Roster queries
• Process related queries
? Complete Dedicated Video Linking of all 05 Courts
All 05 Courts (Court No.01 to 05) at the Principal Seat Islamabad have been fully equipped as dedicated video link courts capable of conducting proceedings in real time with any of the 04 Branch Registries from Peshawar, Lahore, Karachi and Quetta simultaneously.
? Supreme Court of Pakistan Judicial Estacode , 2019
The idea of the Judicial Estacode was to put together several legal documents in one volume, which are relevant to the working of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and were previously scattered in number of books and files. Prior to this Estacode it was time consuming to search out relevant legal documents such as Constitutional provisions, statutes, Presidential Orders, Court judgments, rules, policies and guidelines issued from time to time. This compendium will be of great help to Hon’ble Judges and Court staff in discharge of their duties.
? Enhanced website
• User interface improvements for online case status, cause list search and judgment search tools
• Search engine optimization for all search tools making them more user friendly and more relevant
? Supreme Court Research Center Progress
The SCRC has so far replied about 50 legal queries.
• It has published its first quarterly case law update.
It is working on making taglines and keywords of about 1300 judgments/orders of this court which are available on the website of this Court, for convenience of the whole legal community in searching the relevant case law.
