PREFACE

In the law courts, jurists depend on the speed with which complete, authentic, credible information and records are available in order to reach a conclusive decision in a timely manner. However, the importance of quality, integrity and security of court records cannot be underestimated either. This is why courts in countries around the world have invested in information and communication technologies to create a technically sound, organisationally competent, and financially economical environment for faster access to quality information. This paper presents a case study of E-Shariah and discusses the application of information and communication technologies in the administration of Shariah Courts in Malaysia. The technologies have the two roles in the administering of Shariah courts; firstly, these technologies enable the workflow of the courts and facilitate information management, and secondly they are used to integrate State Shariah Courts in various jurisdictions of Malaysia, as well as government agencies, like the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Immigration Department Prison Department and with Shariah courts. This integration provides for the standardisation of practice and technology and at the same time provides jurists with a one-stop solution for consultations regarding interpretations of Shariah law and the derivation of precedents in the light of decisions taken before. Here, the role of technology extends from mere record management technology to business intelligent-oriented decision support tools. The case study highlights the issues and challenges faced during implementation of this initiative and provides an appreciation of how effectively technology has been used to help Shariah Courts dispense speedy justice.

2. MALAYSIAN LEGAL SYSTEM

Before the English occupation of Malaysia in the 18th Century, Shariah law was enforced by the Malay kings called “sultans”. The courts were known as Qadhi courts and the judges, appointed by the Sultans, were called Qadhi. All cases of a civil and criminal nature were heard in the Qadhi courts. The British role in Malaysia started in 1786, however they only played a more formal and direct part in the administration from 1824, introducing the legal system, based on English common law and the statutes of England. But to respect the Malay rulers, the Qadhi courts were still maintained, with the jurisdiction restricted to only Muslim personal law and family matters. All other cases were governed by English law, (civil and criminal). Being English subjects, all people in Malaysia at that time were subjected to law enforced in England. Even after the independence of Malaysia, the same legal system has been maintained until today. Under the existing legal system, the Malaysian Federal Constitution defines the separation of power between the Federal and the State government. Under Schedule 9, List 1, the constitution provides that all matters of civil and criminal law and legal administration fall under the Federal's list, whereas List 2 of the same schedule lists that Shariah, or Islamic law matters are vested to state governments. As a result the Civil court and Shariah court become separate independent entities with their own specific jurisdiction as provided by Article 121(1A) of the constitution.

Today, both the Civil and Shariah Malaysian judiciary systems administration have moved forward especially over the past few years. Traditionally, in the Malaysian judiciary, civil or Shariah cases have taken a long time to decide. In the past, the backlog of Shariah cases was being scorned by society. As a matter of fact, it took years for a case to settle due to a number of reasons such as the limited number of judges and Shariah court officials, the high volume of Shariah cases, poor infrastructure, the limited budget allocated for Shariah departments and so on. The most significant reason was the unavailability of complete information relating to the case as and when it was required. In certain situations, the cases lingered on for more than a year just because of the fact that the information available to the judges was incomplete, and they could not arrive at a conclusive decision. As has been noted before, according to Malaysian Federal Constitution, the federal government of Malaysia does not have any direct control over the administration and functioning of the Shariah court. On the other hand, state governments are dependant on Malaysian federal government for budget allocations; they find it hard to maintain a standardised policy for the smooth functioning of the Shariah courts. This is why, traditionally, there has been significant discrepancy and a mismatch between the way Shariah courts function throughout the country. This discrepancy, however, is restricted to the workflow of the court rather than in the decisions carried out by the courts.

Since early 2000, the Malaysian government has been proactive with its various e-government initiatives (Amran, Reference Amran2007). These e-government initiatives have been introduced to maintain the steady flow of information from government to citizen as well as from citizen to government. One such initiative was taken in 2003, when the E-Government project was put under the Malaysian Super Corridor (MSC) flagship application. Under this initiative, Shariah courts were selected to became one of the pilot projects named the E-Shariah project. With the implementation of E-Shariah, the Shariah Judiciary Department of Malaysia, Jabatan Kehakiman Shariah Malaysia (JKSM), is the department responsible for all affairs relating to Shariah law enforcement including provision of staff, facilities, physical and logistics instruments, procedures and service quality improvement. Consistent with the government's aspiration in ICT development in all sectors in Malaysia, JKSM was given the mandate as the main driving force in realising the 7^th E- Government Prime Application, the E-Shariah Project. Its administration has become the reference point not only for Malaysian public organisations (such as the National Registration Department and Police Department) but also by various organisations from overseas interested in learning and sharing experienced gained by the court.

Court records lifecycle management is the centrepiece of the E-Shariah initiative. These records are further integrated with other e-government initiatives so as to ensure a speedy and effective service for various government departments as well as society at large. Using these integrated records, departments such as the police, immigration, the ministry of interior, etc, are able to identify potential hazards and areas of concern. At the same time, with the availability of information to the general public, Qadhis (Muslim judges) around the country are able to access information relating to different cases and observe, comment and understand how different interpretations of the sources of Shariah law have been applied to different cases.

3. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research aims to detail the implementation and explore the impact of information and communication technologies in Malaysian Shariah Courts in relation to management. Information management has technical, organisational, social and cultural dimensions. Therefore, our knowledge of reality can only be gained through social constructions such as consciousness, shared meanings, documents, tools and other artifacts. This research, thus, follows a qualitative, interpretive approach with the exploratory case study. Interpretive research does not predefine dependant and independent variables but focuses on the complexity of human sense-making as the situation emerges. It attempts to realise the phenomena under investigation through the meanings that people attach to them. In this case, it is the way people manage the life cycle of information and records in Shariah Courts. Therefore to address the issue at hand an interpretive task provided a rich understanding of the contextually-oriented court records management issues than the more conformist positivist approaches.

Qualitative data was collected through interviews, observation and document reviews. The interview questions consisted of 21 semi-structured questions. Documents were reviewed and workflow were observed to gain an understanding of how records are managed, inspected, stored, retrieved and retired in Shariah Courts. The case study was carried out in Shariah Courts in Kuala Lumpur and Purtjaya. It also involved personal observations on how records were managed, inspection of storage facilities and observations on record retrieval procedures. The data collected was analysed using data analysis software called Nvivo. This software was useful in organising data according to the different themes emerging from the data collected, which supported testing theories or pointing to the emergence of new theories. It also helped in forming relationships between different themes emerging from the interviews to bring about cause and effect analysis.

4. ELECTRONIC COURTS MANAGEMENT PARADIGM IN MALAYSIA

Public sector organisations are obliged to manage their records in line with legislation and organisational policies. Ensuring compliance with records management obligations can be difficult, especially given the explosion of records in electronic form, most notably e-mail, and the devolution of many records management functions throughout the organisation. In Malaysia, the public sector is facing pressing challenges to provide efficient service delivery. The increased demands of the public need to be catered for. Any shortcomings that resulted from the poor management in public service delivery could lead to the question of the integrity of the public sector, as well as the issue of survival, respect and vigor as a nation. In court administration, the large quantity of records and the lack of human resource gives the utmost challenge to the court officials to handle case management effectively (Hamzah, Reference Hamzah2010). Given such a situation, the need for an effective records management system was mounting. There was also a pressing need for a clear definition of the legal framework (Johare Reference Johare2007). Experience by countries in international Records Management Trust (IRMT) research (IRMT, 2004) proved that for a system to work with authority, trustworthiness and reliability, it needs a strong legal framework of its own.

An effective records management system guarantees the accountability and integrity of a court that provides services to the public at large and serves as a strategic resource for government administration (Hassan Reference Hassan2007). A reliable and accurate case file system is fundamental to the effectiveness of day-to-day court operations and fairness of judicial decisions. The maintenance of case records directly affects the timeliness and integrity of case processing. Gouanou & Marsh (Reference Gouanou and Marsh2004) posit that in order to minimise the risks and costs of regulatory and legal non-compliance, litigation, discovery, business inefficiency and failure, courts need to remove the human element by automating records management via the technology. This transformation means removing freedom of choice, enforcing electronic record creation; indexation; classification; naming conventions (thesaurus and taxonomies); creation and preservation of meta-data; minimising duplicate records by creating a central information repository (which will also facilitate knowledge and content management); systematically archiving and tracking records and amendments; applying retention schedules to purge redundant ones; but preserving their access logs, audit trails and meta-data. The major issues in implementing electronic records in courts are access, security and interoperability (Manaf & Ismail Reference Manaf and Ismail2010; Ojo, Janowski & Estevez Reference Ojo, Janowski and Estevez2009). Interoperability refers to is the ability of different IT systems and software applications to communicate with each other to exchange data between them accurately and effectively (Ataullah Reference Ataullah2008).

Courts today not only have to comply with regulations, but also have to maintain a balance between operational record keeping requirements, minimising the liability of storing private information and customer privacy preferences (Ataullah Reference Ataullah2008). The international Records Management Trust (IRMT, 2004) revealed several key issues identified by legal and judicial record case studies (1). The need to raise the status and priority of recordkeeping, (2). The need to allocate greater resources to supporting the recordkeeping infrastructure, for example, storage facilities and equipment (for paper and electronic records), (3). The need to develop records management policies and standards, for example in relation to access to, and long-term preservation of, paper and electronic records, (4). The recognition that computerised case management systems have the capacity to improve case flow management and access to information but there is a danger of regarding computerisation as a means of solving all management, resource and information problems, (5). The need for an information strategy and business case, based on the requirements of all key stakeholders, before embarking on the computerisation of case administration, (6). The value of pilot computerisation projects to build confidence and capacity and (7). The importance of standardised formats and templates for common documents.

5. E-SHARIAH – A MALAYSIAN CASE STUDY

E-Shariah was established to replace the manual system in all Shariah courts. Before E-Shariah came into operation, all business processes from case registration to case disposal were performed manually. It is not surprising that the system was replete in inefficiency and ineptitude. With the increased number of Shariah cases being registered, the delay in case management became more critical. A single case took years to be settled, resulting in hardship for the parties involved. The major reason for this delay was the unavailability of complete information. In certain cases not only was the information incomplete but it had been tampered with as well. With the introduction of E-Shariah, the government aimed to reduce the time taken to settle a case, and to manage each cases and related information more efficiently and systematically (Hamid 2010). The issues faced before the E-Shariah initiative could be devided into three categories, i.e. workflow related issues, people issues and administrative issues.

6. E-SHARIAH

The E-Shariah initiative was adopted as one of the Electronic Government flagship applications in Malaysia in March 2002. This initiative was adopted with the strong support of government, especially by the Malaysian Administration and Modernisation Planning Unit (MAMPU). Although Shariah courts are constitutionally state courts, created and regulated by state laws and under the responsibility of the state authorities, an effort was made by Federal government to standardise the work processes and procedures in these courts. Hence, the Shariah Judiciary Department of Malaysia/ Jabatan Kehaliman Shariah Malaysia (JKSM) was established as a coordinating body of Shariah courts in Malaysia. With the implementation of E-Shariah, an electronic network and communication between all 110 Shariah courts in 102 locations nationwide has been established, using the electronic government network called EG*Net. Figure 1 illustrates the E-Shariah portal and the technologies employed therein. The technologies in place in Shariah courts under the E-Shariah project consists of five modules as follows:

1. a. Shariah Court Case Management System (SPKMS): an integrated case management system developed fully to accommodate the needs of Shariah case management in all Shariah courts (states and district). It involve Shariah civil, criminal, appeal and faraid case management

2. b. Shariah Lawyers Management System: a system that provides facilities for the registration of new applications or renewal of practicing certificates for Syarie lawyers as well as maintaining a database containing details of registered practicing Syarie lawyers to facilitate monitoring and coordination by the authorities.

3. c. Office Automation: a system that provides facilities such as word processing, spreadsheets and graphic presentations to improve productivity in the office operations of the Shariah Courts. Judges, Registrars, and staff are provided with internet and email facility. Case hearing schedule is sent to all Syarie judges through email.

4. d. Library Management System: a web-based library management system that allows users to conduct electronic searches, borrowing and returning of books and other materials. The catalogue of library materials available at the JKSM Library and the State Shariah Libraries is accessible for bookings and loans to Judges and Registrars.

5. e. E-Shariah Portal: a portal that serves as an information gateway to provide the public and staff of the Shariah Courts with the latest news on court procedures and regulations. This serves as a one-stop centre for the public to post enquiries online to the courts about Islamic law and its administration. It also provides the users with case reports as published in the ‘Jurnal Hukum’, a journal publishing case reports and latest Shariah laws, the Quranic verse relating to law, the traditions of Prophedt relating to law, and the gazetted interpretations, opinions and consensus (fatwa) made by Islamic legal scholars. Figure 2 describes the facilities provided in the E-Shariah portal.

6. f. Communication Links to Related Agencies:

   In order to facilitate fast communication with related external agencies, the Shariah courts system is linked electronically with other government agencies listed below:

   1. i. Department of Islamic Development of Malaysia (JAKIM), through the Muslim Marriage Information System /Sistem Maklumat Perkahwinan Islam (SIMPI) which allows courts to verify information on marriage, divorce and reconciliation (ruju') of husbands and wives.

   2. ii. National Immigration Department, where courts can enforce order a prohibiting a child going out of the country by sharing or sending the order containing information of the children involved in the custody cases.

   3. iii. Registration Department of Malaysia (JPN), through Agency Link Information System (ALIS) that provide the current addresses of defendants and to verify the heirs of dead persons, for the purpose of faraid cases, where the actual birth certificates and child adoption certificates can be accessed by courts.

   4. iv. The Royal Malaysian Police Department (PDRM), that allow courts to send warrants, summons and subpoena through email for the police department to take due actions. For Shariah criminal cases involving police officers, a report is sent to the Disciplinary Unit of police Department.

   5. v. Legal Affairs Division of the Prime Ministers's Department (BHEUU), where the link between BHEUU's Case Management System (CMS) and JKSM's case management system (SPKMS) enables information on cases handled by BHEUU's Legal Aid Unit in Shariah courts (such as hearing date), case status, court orders to be retrieved and monitored by them.

   6. vi. National Accountant Department of Malaysia (JANM), through the States Government Standard Computerised Accounting System / Sistem Perakaunan Berkomputer Standard Kerajaan Negeri (SPEKS), maintained by JANM, which allows court to provide information on fee payment and refund of deposits in Shariah courts. This system is customised to every state to suit their needs.

Figure 3 shows the link between the E-Shariah system application with the above mentioned systems.

Figure 1:

E-Shariah Portal (Shariah Judiciary Department 2006).

Figure 2:

Facilities provided in E-Shariah Portal.

Figure 3:

E-Shariah System Applications and Links.

E-Shariah applications have been designed to provide for transformation and standardisation of the work environment in Shariah courts to link all the business processes to a single channel. The idea is to disseminate information on Shariah judicial law and institutions, court procedures and processes for the public through the E-Shariah portal. In doing so the government is aiming to provide a simple, fast, accurate and extensive medium to the public at large, whereby the digital divide between end users in different parts of the nation could also be reduced. Therefore, JKSM as a coordinating body to the Shariah court, is able to create a new paradigm of work culture that is more efficient in the management of the judicial institutions of Islam in Malaysia.

Traditionally, even though the general dealings in Shariah courts are similar, each Shariah court in Malaysia has unique business processes and works differently from its counterparts. The reason for this discrepancy is the fact that Shariah courts are managed by each state and have their own management. Consequently it is the management of each court that decides how the court is to be administered. Due to this disparity, Shariah Courts in various Malaysian states manage similar tasks in different ways. This is not just limited to the workflow, but this lack of standardisation extends to different sets of technologies being used as well as different sets of forms, formats and write ups. States do not use standardised record books and case classification numbers. There are many instances of case overlaps (where same cases have been registered in more than one jurisdictions) especially in cases of child custody, divorce and inheritance where they were filed and registered in different state courts on purpose. This is due to the fact that people have interpreted Islamic jurisprudence in different ways. The main sources of Islamic law are the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet. In reaching the verdict, jurists interpret the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet according to their sect (for example Sunni, Shia), knowledge and conscience, taking into consideration other factors such as culture, the point in time and the welfare of parties involved. As a result, for many centuries, similar cases had been decided differently across the globe, and they are recorded in different places. Consequently, different verdicts have been passed in similar cases in various parts of the world. In these circumstances, availability of information on interpretations of the Quran and the tradition of the Prophet, previous judgments passed, and Ijtihad (reinterpretation of Islamic law according to prevailing circumstances) is of paramount importance. However, due to the disparities in the way State Shariah courts are being administered, the overall paradigm faces issues relating to data quality, lack of interoperability and information integration. Thus the major challenge for the E-Shariah project was to introduce a standardisation of the process, practice, technology and strategy.

The E-Shariah initiative has made attempts to streamline work processes in Shariah courts. It has categorised cases; for example, divorce, child custody, inheritence and crime offences. Consequently, each case is treated uniquely and there is no overlap. At the same time, court record templates have been standardised and brought down from 104 to only 40 gazetted forms only. Attempts are being made to standardise these procedures throughout Malaysia, however due to the lack of legislations at the Federal, as well as State, level this is proving to be extremely difficult. In terms of court records management, at the records creation stage, case files are created in the Shariah Court Case Management System (SPKMS) and given the unique case classification number according to the Practice Direction No 1 Year 2000. However in this transitionary period, apart from managing cases using the Shariah Court Case Management System, hard copies with paper documents are also being used. The reason for managing both hard copy and soft copy records is purely legal. It is the legal requirement that hard copy records are maintained for legal reasons, since an official seal needs to appear on all papers. For example, for family law cases, the Islamic Family Law (Civil Procedure) Act requires documents to be officially sealed on paper and manually signed. At the moment, the relevant laws are being reviewed so as to implement electronic seals. In addition, the laws relating to the risk of the manipulation of electronic records are also being examined by States and Federal government committees. Pending an amendment, the courts would be able to use one line of records management, i.e. electronic records. It should be pointed out that although technology relating to records management is improving at a rapid pace, court processes and laws are not keeping up with the pace of technology advancement. Malaysian Shariah courts are subjected to Federal, State and Shariah law as well as conforming to the guidelines provided by the Ministry of Justice and the ISO regulations. Due to the nature and focus of legislations and guidelines, conflict in practice can easily be understood. In these circumstances, it is left to each court to decide what process or procedure they want to follow. For example, an interviewee, when asked about the legality and validity of electronic and paper-based records, replied, “according to our ISO audit report, the paper version is the most valid one”.

In routine case management, records are updated by the judges and their assistants until the case is closed. Some of the documents relating to a case, such as ‘submission notes’ are only kept on physical files, not in the electronic system. According to researchers' observation, only important information and documents are updated and stored in the system, thus it only serves as a quick retrieval point, not a complete case file. In the system itself, some of the documents are saved in pdf format, while others are saved as Microsoft Word documents, which exposes court records to the risk of manipulation. In their current form, electronic records can only be regarded as a back up or reference point, not as valid official records. However, there are some evident advantages of electronic records, even though their legal value has not been established yet. These benefits are the ability to trace the particular record, the ability to find materials relating to a particular record, and the ability to retrieve information relating to a particular case (for example affidavits, statutory declarations, etc). All active physical files are stored in cabinets near to the courtrooms. Upon closure, the files are moved to records centre and are taken care of by the Records Officers. In the records centre, after they reach a certain maturity period as stipulated in the Shariah Court Records Retention Schedule, case files have to be disposed of. According to Practice Direction No 3 2006, criminal and civil case files must be kept in the records centre for 3 and 7 years respectively (it was 10 years previously). As the population is increasing, so is the case load, and with it pressures on physical storage of court records. An important aspect of court records management would be to alleviate these pressures. People who are related to court records management are aware of these issues and quite a few of interviewees in this case study commented that, “court records are increasing, but storage space remains the same”. And with each new record, it is becoming more and more difficult to manage physical records. JKSM and the Shariah courts are the first public organisation in Malaysia to employ a records manager and officers, and to have records a department in the organisation. It is evident that records management is considered extremely important in Shariah Courts, however this initiative has not been backed up by relevant legislation.

Johare & Husin (2010) conclude that the Malaysian Judiciary is unable to develop a proper Electronic Records Management System (ERMS) for courts' records due to the fact that the only policy developed by the National Archives of Malaysia for court records is the Retention Schedule for Court Records in 1983, and it is unenforceable as it contradicts Enactment 18/1935 – Destruction of Court Records and Rule under Section 2 No. 18 of 1935 which has its own guidelines regarding the destruction of court records. On the other hand, the Shariah Court Records Retention Schedule is available and implemented since 2006 through the Practice Direction No. 13 Year 2006.

7. IMPACT OF E-SHARIAH

E-Shariah has opened up a new avenue for court workflow as well as records management in Malaysian Shariah courts. Although there are a number of benefits which hinge upon a few administrative issues, there are significant benefits that the use of technology has brought to Shariah courts. The following table summarises the pre, and post, E-Shariah implementation dimensious.

One of the major benefits that the E-Shariah initiative is bringing to Shariah courts is uniformity of records throughout the state jurisdiction. The way the data is being captured, managed, maintained, stored and archived is standardised across all Shariah courts at state and district level. This standardisation is monitored and reviewed from time to time by JKSM as the central coordinating body, to ensure that it complies with every states' legal framework. With this effort, the quality of recorded information is improving. Secondly, the conformance of records to particular legislation and ISO 15489 is guaranteed. Thirdly, the reuse of record information is possible. Furthermore the system allows a quick reference point to any Shariah case across the country. Customers as the courts' stake holder, can enjoy the impact of ICTs through speedy case resolution.

Standardisation of information is also at the top of the agenda of JKSM. It is evident in the response of one of the directors interviewed for this research. He concluded “Although every Shariah court operates under a different jurisdiction, JKSM as the central coordination body, with the help from MAMPU and ANM, managed to overcome those shortcomings and came out with a standardised system that allows Shariah cases to be managed systematically throughout Malaysia.” In one of our consultation sessions, people from the Health Ministry said that they had been attempting for many years to standardise systems in all hospitals under the ministry, to allow all patient data to be shared among hospitals, but they keep facing problems. Until now (when the interview was conducted) hospital systems were run individually by hospitals, not linked together. It is a big problem for them to link all hospitals systems. No data sharing is achieved and this is a big waste.

While another director interviewed for this research said, “With the commitment given by JKSM, it was given a priority by the Malaysian Administration and Modernisation Planning Unit (MAMPU) and The National Archives of Malaysia (ANM), by making E-Shariah their keystone project, experimented to the Shariah courts administration, under the direction of JKSM. The project concentrated especially on those issues relating to electronic records management such as the classification schemes and the Islamic data dictionary. Those programs were first initiated here in JKSM before any other departments. The key achievement is the networking between all 14 Syariah courts in Malaysia. With this achievement, other departments started inviting us to share our experience through their workshops, seminars, briefing, etc.”

The Islamic data dictionary is a metadata repository or a collection of descriptions of the Islamic terms or data objects or items in a data model, for the benefit of system developers and programmers and others who need to refer to them. For this purpose, a workshop was held in March 2010 which was attended by various Islamic departments and agencies in Malaysia to set data structures and data codes for Islamic terms for the use of system developers. The data dictionary was published in three languages – Malay, English and Arabic. This will become the reference point for the relevant parties in the integration process and streamlining the coding and data in the religious agencies' system such as the Shariah Court Case Management System.

Table 1

Dimensions of Pre and Post E-Shariah Implementation

The E-Shariah approach towards standardisation is that the courts are going to standardise all the manual processes first because that will provide them with the grounds to integrate those processes with the system. In the first step, all manuals and work procedures, and policies have been standardised for the entire country. The next step was to make all the different jurisdictions conform to these manuals, procedures and policies through the directions from the Federal government. This was followed up by an incentive approach which consisted of various awards. The idea behind this approach was to create competition between different jurisdictions and institutions, whereby the objective was to make all the court jurisdictions follow the same process and reward the most able in order to create completion and commitment between all the different players. For example, a template of a file was printed in bulk and was distributed to all the state courts for free using the same colour coding. Training to use the file was provided in a series of workshops in all the jurisdictions. This was followed up by a compliance award every year. This strategy works as a motivation for each court in every state as well as for the employees involved in the process in each court. These not only help in institutionalising the standardisation of technology and practice throughout Malaysia, but at the same time also work as a communication system for any problems or issues encountered regarding the use of the new system. For example, one of the judges interviewed for this study reported that while using the new system, when the problem like filing issues surfaced, sought MAMPU's cooperation, called Islamic institutions in Malaysia and discussed with them and agreed on semantics of every term involved. All the terms, including the Islamic terms are now standardised, published as the ‘Islamic Data Dictionary’ and used by all Islamic agencies as well as MAMPU and ANM. The terms are now published on ANM's and MAMPU's website and can be referred to by any other related agencies. This will allow all agencies to create their own system using the standardised terms that allows them to link with other systems. It means that all government agencies administering their data according to ANMs and MAMPU's guidelines will automatically be able to integrate data with the Shariah courts in Malaysia.

1. a. Case settlement rate. The overall Shariah case settlement rate is significantly higher than the settlement rate before E-Shariah implementation. One of the judges interviewed by the researcher said, “It gave a new image to the Shariah judiciary institution in Malaysia, which was previously labelled as slow and inefficient. Yes, we were slow before, because we were left behind in terms of technology adoption, where there is no specific system that can improve our operational process. Every court was doing its own way. With the introduction of E-Shariah, the awareness and interest of staff, officials and judges in using ICT is improved. Provision of emails and internet for staff allow them to become more productive and efficient, for example judges could refer to legal resources such as legal text in the Arabic language via the internet. It also allows them to access the latest information online.”

2. b. Coordination time/time saving. E-Shariah has become a coordination mechanism that can save a lot of the courts' time which was previously wasted on re-work involved at the time of registration and management of cases. Today, finding the status of the case and retrieving case records is made easy through the system. One of the interviewees said, “With the Front Office-Back Office concept, it saves a lot of customers' time to undergo case registration. At the front office counter, only important and basic information is recorded, whilst other information is sent online to the back office to be processed. Biodata of customers is automatically extracted from their MyCard (Malaysian official identity card its citizen and permanent resident). The summon document and case number are also automatically generated by the system at the counter. In fact, this process takes less than 10 minutes, because the biodata is extracted from MyKad, and payment of the fee is made online.With the new E-Shariah introduction (E-Syariah 2), our KPI is elevated to 5–8 minutes registration time. The new system was tested and the new objective was already achieved.”

3. c. Case overlap. The use of ICTs allows any case overlapping to be traced automatically. As said by a registrar, “There is no more case overlapping since the parties who already registered their cases in a state, will not be able to register the same cases elsewhere, because the system will automatically detect it through their MyCard. For example, when a wife files a custody case in Johore, and subsequently the husband tries to register the case in Selangor, the system will identify and notify the Selangor Registrar that the case is already filed in Johore. Thus, overlapping orders over one case, will not happen again, as before.”

4. d. Case delay/postponement. To avoid any delay in case disposal, the system is capable of sending reminder emails to the registrars and judges who handle cases when a particular cases is still deferred after certain stipulated time. This automatic reminder of delayed cases leaves less room for any dropout of cases heard in Shariah courts which was always previously overlooked.

5. e. Work process (Automatic case distribution among judges ). Work processes are becoming significantly efficient with the use of the case management system. A respondent said, “When cases are registered, they will be automatically scheduled and distributed between judges.” This allows for fair workloads for Judges in terms of the number of cases they handle.

6. f. Case backlog. Referring to the above fact, there are no more problems in managing and verifying the case status manually. As a result, there is no backlog of cases because cases are assigned accordingly between jurist, to ensure fair workload.

7. g. Process interoperability. JKSM has attempted to standardise court procedures and work processes to ensure fairness to all customers. Previously the different work processes between states did not allow for any exchange of information between courts and this caused difficulty and was bias to the customers. One of the interviewees said, “It is very convenient now that we can share our data with other state courts. The system is clever and we manage to access information gathered by other courts and enable us to use the information without going through the hassle to get it by ourselves. At the end of case processes, whatever decision given to a case it will be accessible and made known to all the Shariah court in Malaysia.

8. h. Information security. The use of ICTs guarantees the security of information more than before. This is because only the authorised persons to a particular case will be able to have access to it, while the case is still in the hearing process. The use of the E-Government smart card and digital signature leaves a very slim chance for those who do not get involved in the case processing to interfere in anyway. Previously, the physical files could not gurantee it was always in safe hands since they needed to be carried around physically.

9. i. Integration with government agencies. The Shariah Court Case Management System is integrated with 6 other government agencies, ensuring court decision enforcement and follow-up is carried out with the commitment of those agencies, providing accurate data that is made available in a timely manner. For example, when a child is prohibited by court, in a custody case, to be taken out of the country, the Immigration Department will be informed and they can take action accordingly.

10. j. One stop solution. With the introduction of a one stop centre for fee payment, case registration, document submission, administration and follow up, customers are no longer forced to contact different departments dealing with their court case. This facility offers convenience and time-saving to the customers of Shariah courts.

11. k. Old records retrieval and development of online repositories. The system facilitates the retrieval process of court records. Those closed cases can be accessed in a few seconds. An interviewee said, “Through E-Shariah, all verdicts/judgement records of closed cases will be able to be accessed by other judges using the system. Indirectly, it develops an online repository of case decisions in Malaysia and allows an information sharing culture between judges. However, cases which are still under proceedings are only accessible by the judge involved for security purposes to protect the classified information in the files.”

12. l. Similar cases, dissimilar verdicts. The system allows case monitoring by the JKSM as the central agency to make sure that similar cases are treated in the same way. The Chief Judge in particular can monitor cases handled in all states while the State Chief Judge can monitor cases handled by judges in their own states. This monitoring exercise leads to uniformity of treatment to similar case law brought before courts.

13. m. Trust in the system. The use of information and communication technologies, particularly through the Shariah court Case Management System and the E-Shariah portal has brought transparency to the Shariah judiciary system in Malaysia. This transparency brings back the trust of people to the judiciary. In its long term planning, JKSM is preparing to establish its own records centre and training institute. One of the senior managers said, “We already come with proper planning for the establishment of Shariah Courts Records Centre, built and maintained together with Shariah Judiciary Institute, to become a leading research centre regarding Shariah law and the judiciary as well as other Islamic matters. Closed files will be preserved for reference and training purposes. Our plan is to build a Shariah Judiciary Training Institute and Records Centre on a 100 acre land area. That idea is strongly supported by the National Archives and the Malaysian Administration and Modernisation Planning Unit (MAMPU).