Parly adopts virtual court adverse report
PARLIAMENT has adopted an adverse report by the Parliamentary Legal Committee on virtual court filings through the Integrated Electronic Case Management System, an online platform designed to manage cases, the grounds being that a lot of Zimbabweans do not have easy access to the internet to file the cases and their responses.
In particular, the committee was concerned that as the system cascaded down to the Magistrates Courts, there would be a practical problem applying for bail via the internet for accused people who did not have a lawyer or who cannot afford to hire a lawyer.
The system was introduced by the Judicial Service Commission through a statutory instrument whose primary objective was to make all the courts of law in the country paperless in line with international standards, starting with the highest courts, where most filings are made by lawyers, but cascading down the system to the lowest courts, where many filings are made by untrained individuals.
During recent deliberations in the National Assembly, Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Deputy Minister Nobert Mazungunye acceded to the reservations raised by the committee chaired by Hwedza North MP Cde Itai Ndudzo (Zanu PF) when it tabled the adverse report against the regulations, resulting in the National Assembly adopting it.
The Parliamentary Legal Committee looks at Bills and statutory instruments to see if they are consistent with the Constitution and then tables its reports before Parliament for debate. While the Constitutional Court has the final say on legal interpretation of the Constitution, the committee has rarely been overruled in the past. In his contribution, Deputy Minister Mazungunye concurred with the committee on the access problems to the new system and assured legislators that he will engage the JSC and come up with amendments to address issues raised in the adverse report.
“We also noted the concerns being raised which we also believe are pertinent and as the Ministry of Justice, together with the JSC, we will sit down and come up with any necessary amendments or changes in that regard if there are any. So, we appreciate the concerns. On that note, we concur. We are not objecting to the report being tabled by the Parliamentary Legal Committee,” he said.
Deputy Minister Mazungunye subsequently moved for the adoption of the report.
“Thank you Madam Speaker. I now, with leave, move that this House having given consideration to the report of the Parliamentary Legal Committee on Statutory Instrument 153 of 2023 published in the Government Gazette on 25th August, 2023, resolves that the Statutory Instrument would, if enacted, be in contravention of the declaration of rights and some provisions of the Constitution. I submit,” he said before the National Assembly adopted it.
In August last year, the High Court Rules were amended through SI 153/2023 to allow court papers to be filed and served electronically and cases to be heard virtually through the new system, which was being expanded down from the highest level of courts to start including more cases where ordinary people could be doing the filing rather than lawyers.
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