National Judicial Automation Committee (NJAC) has reviewed a strategy for introducing e-filing of cases and developing a “One Case, One Identity” system aimed at assigning a unique identity to every case throughout its judicial lifecycle.
NJAC reviews e-filing, One Case, One Identity strategy
ISLAMABAD, Sep 24 (APP):National Judicial Automation Committee (NJAC) has reviewed a strategy for introducing e-filing of cases and developing a “One Case, One Identity” system aimed at assigning a unique identity to every case throughout its judicial lifecycle.
The meeting, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Yahya Afridi, considered proposed standard templates for a uniform digital filing process across the country’s judicial system.
The Chief Justice informed the committee that e-filing would initially be introduced on a pilot basis for family cases in selected courts across all provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
He also briefed the meeting on the UCIN initiative, “One Case, One Identity”, under which each case would be assigned a unique identity to facilitate its tracking throughout the judicial process. He said relevant stakeholders had been consulted and a preliminary draft shared with the NJAC for detailed review and refinement before its submission to the National Judicial (Policy Making) Committee (NJPMC) for final consideration.
Chairman NJAC Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar led deliberations on the proposed e-filing template and stressed the need for a single, comprehensive template without provincial variations. He said the template should be applicable across all provinces and ICT, conform to relevant provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure and be convenient for judges, court staff, advocates and litigants.
Justice Mazhar asked members to examine the template from legal and operational perspectives and submit their suggestions within two weeks, with the objective of developing a secure and user-friendly framework for consistent implementation across jurisdictions.
The committee also reviewed a recently launched dashboard for real-time monitoring of judicial data. Members said the respective High Courts were participating in the initiative and their IT directorates were regularly updating the data.
Justice Mazhar expressed concern over reports that data from Prison Departments was being received with a delay of about one month, affecting real-time monitoring. He directed the Secretary, Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan, to take up the matter with the concerned authorities on a priority basis and streamline the reporting mechanism.
The meeting was attended in person by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Arbab Muhammad Tahir and Justice Muhammad Azam Khan of the Islamabad High Court, Registrar Supreme Court of Pakistan, Director General Reforms Supreme Court of Pakistan and Secretary Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.
Other NJAC members who participated online included Justice Sultan Tanvir Ahmad and Justice Khalid Ishaq of the Lahore High Court; Justice Muhammad Faisal Kamal Alam and Justice Adnan Iqbal Chaudhry of the High Court of Sindh; Justice Wiqar Ahmad and Justice Muhammad Faheem Wali of the Peshawar High Court; and Justice Shaukat Ali Rakhshani and Justice Gul Hassan Tareen of the High Court of Balochistan.
