The National Judicial Automation Committee (NJAC) has reviewed the implementation strategy for e-filing of cases and proposed standard templates aimed at introducing a uniform digital filing system across the country’s courts.
The meeting, chaired by Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, also reviewed the “One Case, One Identity” initiative, which seeks to assign a unique identity to every case throughout its judicial lifecycle, according to a Supreme Court press release issued on Thursday.
The chief justice told 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.
He also briefed members on the “One Case, One Identity” initiative and said relevant stakeholders had been consulted.
A preliminary draft of the initiative has been shared with the NJAC for detailed review and refinement before it is submitted to the National Judicial Policy Making Committee for final consideration.
Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, chairman of the NJAC, led discussions on the proposed e-filing template and stressed the need for a single, comprehensive format without provincial variations.
He said the template should be adopted across all provinces and Islamabad and should comply with relevant provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure.
The system should also be designed for use by judges, court staff, advocates and litigants, he said.
Justice Mazhar asked committee members to examine the proposed template from legal and operational perspectives and submit their suggestions within two weeks.
The aim is to develop a secure and user-friendly framework that can be implemented consistently across different jurisdictions.
The committee also reviewed a recently launched dashboard for real-time tracking of judicial data.
Members informed the meeting that the high courts were participating in the initiative and their information technology directorates were updating the required data.
Justice Mazhar expressed concern over reports that data from prison departments was being received with a delay of about one month, affecting the purpose of real-time monitoring.
He directed the secretary of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan to take up the issue with the relevant authorities on a priority basis and streamline the reporting mechanism to keep the dashboard updated.
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, the Supreme Court registrar, director general reforms and secretary of the Law and Justice Commission of Pakistan.
Other NJAC members from the Lahore, Sindh, Peshawar and Balochistan high courts joined the meeting online.
The Supreme Court said the initiatives were aimed at standardising digital judicial processes, improving secure case identification and data availability, and making court services more accessible and efficient.