Criminal Court introduces case management system and other administrative changes

The Criminal Court of Maldives has announced major changes to its administrative functions including the introduction of a case management system.

According to the criminal court, they had been previously used Microsoft excel sheets to keep a log of cases and had manually carried out administrative tasks such as issuing court summons and documents by individually typing them out on Microsoft Word.

Nevertheless, as of January 1st 2020, the court has adopted an electronic case management system.

The court further stated that the Maldives E-Court Management System was previously used to log attendance, vacation days, and sick leaves. However, with the addition of a new module to the system, they have now begun to electronically log cases as well, said the criminal court.

As such, the criminal court revealed that all the data of the 1661 ongoing cases at the court and data prior to 31st December 2019 have been entered into the aforementioned system.

Furthermore, the court states that as of 5th January, the court will begin scheduling hearings in addition to issuing court summons and other relevant documents automatically generated through the system.

While the court claims that court summons and other relevant documents can be printed and issued with a few clicks of the mouse, the entire system is expected to finish development within six months. The criminal court also added that once the system is completed, a portal between the court and the Prosecutor General's office will be established through the system.

Other administrative changes include the decision by the Judge's Council of the Criminal Court to alter the codes assigned to various sections of the court.

The Criminal Court disclosed that the court's administrative section, trial section and finance section has been assigned the codes A, B, and C respectively.

While the judges of the criminal court had been previously assigned random alphabetical codes, they have since been assigned with numbers in ascending order under code "B".

At the start of 2020, there are currently 1661 ongoing cases at the criminal court, most of which are regarding drug-related offences. The criminal court has been undertaking efforts to resolve issues within the court, including the backlog of pending cases. They are also working together with the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) and the Department of Judicial Administration (DJA) to further improve the court's procedures.

Currently, the Chief Judge of the Criminal Court of the Maldives is Judge Ali Rasheed Hussain.