Justice [not] delayed: LHC to have e-monitoring mechanism

A pilot project has been set up Sheikhupura.

LAHORE:

The Lahore High Court is working on an electronic monitoring mechanism for lower courts, The Express Tribune has learnt.

A pilot project is running in two courts in Sheikhupura district. Once perfected, the mechanism will extended to include all lower courts of the province.

Officials told The Express Tribune that the administration of the Lahore High Court wanted to dispel the impression that courts take years to resolve cases.

They said the LHC administration had taken various steps for quick disposal of cases but there had been no tangible results. Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial had directed lower courts judges to send monthly progress reports so that the high court could assess where the problem lay.

Recently, the chief justice had also distributed laptops among judges of the subordinate courts to incentivise quicker disposal of cases.

High court officials said the monitoring project was initiated by Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who is also the administration judge of district judiciary of Sheikhupura.

He started the project in collaboration with IT experts from the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).

Depending on their availability, Justice Mansoor and the experts have been visiting Sheikhupura to check the progress on the project once a week. LHC Information Technology Assistant Registrar Iftikhar Ahmed told The Express Tribune that so far, the project was going smoothly. He said at every meeting, suggested improvements to the system were installed.

“It should be a masterpiece once it is complete,” he said.

He said data on filing of cases, court proceedings and hearing dates would be uploaded. He said once that was complete, the system would be replicated across the province. He said the project would be completed in six months in Sheikhupura.

He said installing it in all other courts would be a time-consuming process.

He said with the help of the project, an administrative judge of the LHC for his district would have an online account and would be able to check performance of other judges. He said this would help the LHC identify hurdles in the way of quick disposal of cases. Advocate Tipu Salman Makhdoom said close monitoring of the subordinate judiciary would ensure early disposal of cases.

He said the administration of the LHC should take the bar into confidence as the role of lawyers was integral to court procedures.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2014.