1. Introduction

1.1. Purpose

Day to day activities and case management of the Supreme Court and the Subordinate Courts needs to be brought under the coverage of modern information and technology and thus expeditious services are being given to litigants, lawyers and relevant stakeholders.

Supreme Court has setup a full-fledged website where the daily cause list, basic information of the cases, concise statement of the cases, verdict and orders are immediately uploaded.

Daily Cause List and status of serial of case hearing are being displayed through digital screen board as immediate information. In this, details of daily activities the benches are provided in summary manner. Already Online Cause List has been introduced in the Supreme Court. Soon Cause List will be published only through online instead of printing on paper.

The new system aims to bring all the stakeholders under one single umbrella. The cause-list module that will be developed will be the key element of the entire digital judiciary system.

The new digitalized web and app-based system should feature a user-friendly interface for the judges, advocates, court staff, law enforcers, and litigants connected to the district courts, supreme, and high courts of Bangladesh. The aim is to develop a “virtual cause-list’ from where users will get instant details of day-to-day hearing of the cases.

1.2. Background

Many measures have been taken for digitization of different procedures of the Supreme Court aiming at total digitization of the Judiciary. Among them, introduction of online cause list is the most important initiative.

Under this system cause list of both Divisions of the Supreme Court are published online. To make this system sustainable an “Operational Manual” has been drafted by the Research Unit of the Supreme Court which has been approved by the Honorable Chief Justice. The Bench Officers, Staff of the Bench section and the IT Department give input of cases and co-ordinate the publishing of the same online following the said Manual.

To make the online cause list more user-friendly IT Department converts it in PDF format and upload in the web. Through this online cause list litigant people can be informed about the result of his case even from a remote place. It is expected that online cause list system would reduce the harassment of the parties of the case drastically.

Presently, the everyday cases are filed in different Benches of the High Court Division. Different information relating to these cases are given entry to online and preserved in the server. In which dates a particular case appeared in the cause list, information relating to this is also preserved in the server. A person who wants to know about his case can go to the website of the Supreme Court and can search for and know about the present status of his case.

The court introduced the app(cause-list) so that people, such as lawyers, litigants, and law enforcement officers, can get information on cases, such as updates and current positions, as well as results after the Appellate and High Court divisions hold hearings on them.

1.3. Objectives

The objectives of the cause list are as follows:

1. Know the upcoming case hearing at a glance.
   Users of the system should able to view the cause list without having to visit the court. Judicial officials can view all cause list at a glance through the system.
2. Know the cases listed for the hearing (day to day) within the court(s).
   Day-wise cases scheduled for hearing will be visible to the users. They can also view the previous day’s cause list if needed.
3. Entry causes effectively & easily.
   Court staff responsible for entering the cases in the cause list should be able to effortlessly enter the cases scheduled to be addressed for the upcoming day. They should also be able to update the list if required.
4. Store case records digitally (reduce paperwork).
   The system should have a provision to store digitized case related documents. Users will be able to upload digitized documents and use it for a particular case.
5. Easy to access causes anytime, anywhere.

Judicial staff and litigants can view the cause list through the system anytime and from anywhere. They no longer will have to be at the court premises to view the court published cause list.

    6. Facilitate other digital systems like Dashboard to get the real data.

The dashboard should visually represent all cause list data in real time