Criminal Court halts online hearings due to server issue

Criminal Court has halted its online hearings due a technical issue in the server of the Department of Judicial Administration (DJA).

Criminal Court's Media Official said that due to this, online hearings have been halted since last Saturday.

With space constraints, 80 percent of the court's hearings are held online. This includes hearings of those in remand in custody and cases where witnesses are in the islands. However, this work has now come to a halt as internet, network and phone lines are disconnected due to the server issue.

With this, today's hearings at the court are only those that can be proceeded in person. Remand hearings today also require the defendant to be physically present in court, although they are generally held online.

After the Covid-19 pandemic, many courts adopted online hearings. In a bid to resolve the issue of space constraints faced by the Criminal Court, the old Covid facility in Hulhumale' is now being adapted for use as a courthouse.