KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 1 (Bernama) -- The number of judges will be gradually reduced after the full implemention of the four electronic systems in courts, aimed at overcoming the backlog of cases, the chief justice said on Tuesday.

Tun Zaki Tun Azmi said the electronic systems -- e-filing, court management system (CMS), court recording transcription (CRT) and queue management system (QMS) -- is expected to assist the judges to speedily dispose off cases at between three to four times faster than the current system.

The four electronic systems costing RM69 million, have begun to be implemented in all the 166 courts in Kuala Lumpur, and are expected to be implemented in Shah Alam, Penang and Johor Baharu by year-end before being expanded to other states, he said.

Zaki was speaking to reporters after officiating the new commercial courts (NCC) in Jalan Duta's Courts Complex here.

He said with the new systems, the civil and commercial cases which were filed today, would be disposed off faster, while judges who had finished hearing old cases, will be removed to hear new cases.

"Once we dispose off the backlog in cases, we cannot keep up with the increase in the number (of judges). It is very expensive. A judge's salary and his costs are not cheap. I expect the judge alone to cost about RM50,000, including car, plus the secretary, office, may be RM60,000 to RM70,000," he said.

Currently, there are 133 judges in the country, from the Federal Court, Court of Appeal and High Court, including Judicial Commissioners, he said.

Zaki said under the four electronic systems, the e-filing would enable electronic handling of filing the cases, while the CMS were more on case scheduling, case management, trial management, enquiry management and other court administrative functions.

Under the CMS, the public and lawyers would be able to make online checks and under the QMS, the court could call the cases via short message systems to the lawyers.

While under CRT, it provides electronic recording of witnesses' testimonies without the judges having to write it, and thus helps to reduce the time taken for the judges to write the testimonies, especially in criminal cases.

Zaki said, with that the judges in criminal cases would only need to hear the evidences, and they would save the court's time, as well as the witnesses.

"With CRT, I also could monitor the proceedings in court from my office in Putrajaya. Nobody can deny whatever you have said as it is recorded. If the lawyers want the CRT, they can ask the court to supply (it to them) after the proceedings," he said.

On the two new commercial courts opened today, Zaki said they were targeted to dispose off management cases soon after filing, in a move to reduce the waiting period and fix early hearing dates.

He said the two courts would deal with all commercial cases, but they would not deal with Muamalat and intellectual property cases, and the judges who handled the commercial courts are Datuk Dr Hamid Sultan Abu Backer and Anantham Kasinater.

Previously, the lawyers needed to file the cases through hard copy or document, but now the cases could be filed electronically by soft copy, via pen-drive, he added.

Zaki said the court would be able to fix the date of hearing within two months from the date of filing, and if one of the parties was not ready, the cases would be called again and if need be, the court would strike out the cases.

"In full trial cases, if the parties were ready, the hearing date would be given one month and the cases would be disposed off within nine months," he said.

During the launch, Zaki was given a briefing by the Commercial High Court Deputy Registrar Hamidah Mohd Deril on the implementation of the new system in the new commercial courts.

Also present were Chief Judge of Malaya Tan Sri Ariffin Zakaria, Federal Court Judge Datuk James Foong, Court of Appeal Judge Datuk Raus Md Shariff and the High Court's deputy registrar.

Meanwhile, Bar Council president Ragunath Kesavan, when asked on the NCC, said the Bar welcomed the new courts as it would expedite disposal of cases.

--BERNAMA