Electronic case filing has been introduced at the Colombo District Court, the first working component of an island-wide e-Courts project run under the Judicial Service Commission.
The facility went live on Wednesday (23) for Small Claims cases, and is to be extended in stages to other case types and to courts outside Colombo, the Ministry of Justice said in an account carried by Hiru News.
Senior Counsel Shiranthi Gunawardena submitted the first electronic case file to the Colombo Small Claims Court, marking the start of the system. Chief Justice Preethi Padman Surasena joined a field inspection that afternoon at the Additional District Court and Small Claims Court in Colombo 07.
How it works
Attorneys-at-law registered with the Supreme Court can log in to accounts on the Colombo District Court website and lodge cases and supporting documents electronically. The Daily Mirror reported the facility is available 24 hours a day, removing the need to travel to court purely to hand in papers.
The system is designed to cut paper use and storage costs while improving how case records are managed and retrieved. Technical development was carried out by Sri Lanka Telecom in collaboration with the Judicial Service Commission, under the Chief Justice’s guidance.
What comes next
Further services planned under the e-Courts project include voice-to-text technology for recording court proceedings and online issuance of certified copies of court records. The Ministry of Justice says the aim is to give every court its own website, a case-file management system and electronic filing — work it expects to carry out within this year.
Senior Counsel donated 15 computers to the Colombo District Court to support the new facilities. The Secretary to the Judicial Service Commission, judges of the Colombo District Court, and Senior Legal Counsel Shiranthi Gunawardena and Anoma Gunathilaka attended the launch.
