Mandatory Electronic Document Submission to the Supreme Court

Supreme Court Circular Letter No. 14 of 2010 on Electronic Documents to Complete the Submission of an Appeal or a Civil Review (‘Circular Letter’) has been issued in order to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, transparency, and accountability of documentation in the Supreme Court as well as the lower courts.

All documentation for appeals and civil reviews submitted to the Supreme Court must be accompanied with an electronic copy (compact disc, flash disc, or email). The following documents must be submitted in electronic copy: decision of the court of first instance, any higher court appellate decisions, and the indictment letter (for criminal cases, special criminal cases, and military cases) (Item 1). The electronic document copies form a part of the documents that are required to be submitted; which means that the submission will be considered incomplete, resulting in a rejection, if the electronic document copies are not provided (Item 2).

For further efficiency, the submission of arguments for appeals and civil reviews in softcopy form (alongside with a hardcopy) is also encouraged, but is not yet mandatory. 

To support this new policy, the Supreme Court has instructed lower courts to setup electronic document management of all of their decisions, and comply, develop and monitor the implementation of this policy.

The Circular Letter was issued on 30 December 2010 and comes into force on 1 March 2011.