DOHA: The forum of Qatari lawyers says the courts should use modern telecommunications services in their day-to-day dealings in keeping with the changing times.
The courts must also accept emails, videos and audios, short-messaging services of mobile phones and other modern means of communication as evidence in cases.
The Qatari Lawyers’ Association has also underlined the need for the courts to shorten the time they take to settle litigations.
For this, the Association has said, the Procedural Law that was enforced way back in 1990, must be amended to keep pace with the changes that have taken place ever since.
For example, the country’s population has multiplied 15 times since 1990 and is now 2.3 million, according to a prominent member of the Association. The workload on the courts has multiplied 10 times in the past 30 years, said prominent lawyer and member of the Association, Yusuf Al Zaman.
The Association held a meeting on Monday and discussed these issues. The meet was chaired by Dr Hassan Al Sayed. Present was the Association’s Chairman, Rashid Al Nuaimi.
Procedural law is a set of rules that govern court proceedings in criminal, civil, administrative and other lawsuits, and they decide how long a case would linger.
Al Zaman said in just six years, from 2008 until 2014, court cases had gone up massively in number. From 67,552 in 2008, they totalled 81,169 in 2014.
“That explains why there is a huge backlog of cases with the courts,” he said. An idea of the workload of courts can also be had from the fact that in 1986, for instance, there were just 98 appeal cases.
In 2013, the six courts of appeals heard some 1,484 cases. “Amazing, isn’t it?” Al Zaman said. The cases would further increase this year.
“We urge Qatari law-makers to amend the procedural law so as to ensure fair trial for individuals and protect their rights.”
Al Zaman was highly critical of the setting up of rent dispute resolution committees by the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning vide Law Number 4 regulating property rentals enforced in 2008.
He said the move breached the authority of the judiciary and eroded what was the authority of the courts. The law authorised the Supreme Judicial Council to appoint a judge to the committee but the municipal minister had the right to nominate two other members on the panel. This breached the authority of the judiciary.
Only the courts, and not administrative panels dominated by the civic ministry, could decide rent-related disputes, he said. The move was made on the pretext of quickening up the pace of rent dispute resolution. That was no justification for the move, said Al Zaman.
The Peninsula
