(L-R): Hon. Justice Fredrick Martin Stephen Egonda-Ntende (Chairman , ECCMIS Steering Committee), Hon. Justice Owiny - Dollo (Chief Justice), Hon. Justice Ssekaana (Head - Civil)
On Tuesday March 1, 2022, the Chief Justice, Hon. Justice Alfonse Chigamoy Owiny - Dollo presided over the launch of the Electronic Court Case Management Information System (ECCMIS) at the Judiciary Headquarters in Kampala.
ECCMIS is a fully-featured digital system that automates and tracks all aspects of a court case life cycle from filing to completion.
At the ECCMIS Go Live event, the Chief Justice explained how the adoption of ECCMIS contributes to the attainment of the National Development Plan (NDP) III which provides for digital transformation.
"Today, we are here to witness and celebrate the birth to another ICT system, the Electronic Court Case Management Information System," CJ said.
Adding that ECCMIS is intended to promote access to timely justice as it is founded on the judiciary business model which requires minimal human interaction. He encouraged court officers and users to familiarize themselves with the System regardless of the anticipated challenges.
In his presentation, Court of Appeal Justice and Chairperson ECCMIS Steering Committee, Hon. Justice Fredrick Martin Stephen Egonda-Ntende elaborated the advantages of ECCMIS, in comparison to the former Court Case Administration System (CCAS).
"We realized there was need to move from paper docket to digital to avoid the question of lost paper and files." he said
He noted that the challenges that will manifest in the trial phase will play a vital role in the improvement of the System. He thus called upon Judicial Officers to own up the innovation and progressively ensure its success.
While demonstrating how ECCMIS operates, Mr Ssinabulya Joseph, the Senior Information Technology Officer said that ECCMIS will facilitate efficient and reliable collection, organization, distribution and retrieval of significant amounts of case-specific data.
The system was also programmed to processes payment of relevant court fees/fines and enables easy generation of reports.
The first cluster had seven courts go-live. These include the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal/Constitutional Court, and High Court Divisions; Civil Land, Anti-Corruption and the Commercial Division. Mengo Chief Magistrates Court was also enrolled to the system.
Notably present was Hon. Justice Musa Ssekaana who represented the Principal Judge, Hon. Justice John Eudes Keitirima and Justice Immaculate Busingye, the Chairperson of the ECCMIS Technical Committee.
In attendance also was the Permanent Secretary/Secretary to Judiciary, Dr Pius Bigirimana and the Chief Registrar, HW Sarah Langa Siu, among other senior Judiciary administrators.
Posted 2nd, March 2022
