The project is a collaborative initiative between the Ministry of Justice, SLT and the Judiciary.
Video conferencing solutions for the Ministry of Justice will be carried out by SLT with Just in Time Technologies Private Limited as the managed service partner (lead partner) by using Huawei products for the solution design.
This decision was taken at the recent meeting on finalising strategic partnerships for the project, an official document revealed.
However, employees of Sri Lanka Telecom vehemently protested against the appointment of Just in Time Technologies (Pvt) Ltd as the lead partner without directly dealing with Huawei, which is also a key partner of SLT.
SLT has a back-to-back agreement with NSB and the latter has failed to make payments under the agreement. SLT had to settle the case out of court, informed sources said.
Several SLT employees claimed that entering into similar agreements with the JIT group will replicate similar results like the NSB deal.
The secretary to the Ministry of Justice, S.M. Mohommed said that the project is in the pipeline and that she cannot comment on matters relating to it as no cabinet decision has been taken as yet.
However, the Ministry has given consent to SLT to go ahead with the plan of developing the video conferencing solution partnering with Just in Time Technologies and Huawei Lanka, informed sources added.
The video conferencing solution is aimed at increasing the efficiency of court proceedings by reducing time and costs while offering practical solutions to problems of transporting prisoners,
It will reduce security risks and the potential harm to prisoners and the public creating a more responsive and engaging interaction between legal practitioners and clients.
The Ministry of Justice is to set up more virtual courts to ensure the timely delivery of justice while upholding the safety of litigants, lawyers, judges, and all other judicial and law enforcement officials.
According to the project concept plan, main solution deliverables are remote court hearings for extending the remand period of inmates, virtual jail visitation for inmates family members ,enabling attorneys at law to consult and take instructions from inmates(remote legal consultations during convenient times).
It will also provide remote participation and observation facilities for lawyers for lawyers and remote participation of law enforcement officers.
Future enhancement of the solution includes remote court hearing proceedings, and providing administrative collaboration facilities for justice ministry, prisons and judiciary.