•As NJC holds first online meeting By Ikechukwu Nnochiri In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court said yesterday it has con...
•As NJC holds first online meeting
By Ikechukwu Nnochiri
In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court said yesterday it has concluded plans to hold virtual proceedings to determine the backlog of cases pending before it.
To this end, the apex court in a statement signed by its Director of Press & Information, Dr. Festus Akande, said it had started upgrading its Information Technology facilities.
Akande disclosed that the National Judicial Council, NJC, the legal body responsible for the appointment and disciplining of Judges, held a two-day virtual meeting that ended yesterday, as part of the modern technological platforms being enthroned by the Nigerian Judiciary.
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“We hope to leverage on the emerging options at our disposal to deliver on our mandate so that the Justice sector does not suffer any major setback even before we resume our normal life,” Akande added.
Besides, the apex court, debunked what it termed as a false report in a national daily (not Vanguard), which it said claimed that its Legal E-mail platform has been abandoned.
The statement read: “I wish to state in clear terms that this report, from all indications, was made in bad fate as our Legal E-mail has been fully functional since its inauguration in 2018; and has been serving the purpose for which it was created. The true motive behind this misleading story is yet to be ascertained.
“It will be recalled that the Nigeria Legal E-mail System was officially inaugurated by the former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Hon. Mr. Justice WSN Onnoghen (rtd) on July 18, 2018.
“The sole aim of this platform is to enable all the counsel that appear in Supreme Court to have valid E-mail Addresses with a proof-of-service wherein they could easily be served Hearing Notices and Judgment Notices.
“Interestingly, over the years, lawyers have been registering for the Legal E-mail System in line with the terms of the platform. It is necessary to state that in Supreme Court, since July 2018, it has been a mandatory pre-requisite for filing of appeals at the Court’s Registry.
“Thus all Lawyers must file with their Legal E-mail addresses on their documents. A key component of the Legal Email process is for the appellant and respondent lawyers to be available on the Legal Email Platform so that they could both be served their hearing notices through the email with a proof-of-service.
“However, since the backlog of appeals currently being heard in Supreme Court are those of 2008, which predate the 2018 inauguration, many of the lawyers involved have not yet registered on the platform.
“This leaves the Court with no option at the moment than to manually serve the respective chambers and also by sending text messages to their mobile phones in the interim.
“Plans are ongoing, possibly to have the relevant laws in place, to ensure that any lawyer who has not registered for the Legal Email will not have his appeal listed for hearing at the Supreme Court.”
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