The fax machine of Kasbewa Magistrate’s Court is out of order and the inmates and their relatives are plunged into utter chaos because it is not possible to receive and send court orders, bail orders and other information. The fax machine is frequently down and has been down for about a week now.

Due to the fact that the fax machine was out of order, the defendants who have been granted bail by the Homagama High Court have been forced to remain in prison as they were unable to receive the bail orders.  The human rights of the suspects are being violated due to administrative weaknesses and technical equipment problems in the Kasbewa Magistrate’s Court. Some of the officers of Kasbewa Magistrate Court have no responsibility or sensitivity or respect towards the inmates and their relatives. According to them, the suspects and their relatives are criminals. They don’t care if the fax works or not.

To get bail from a high court, one has to stay in the prison for three months ie almost 90 days and one hundred thousand rupees has to be paid to the lawyers and 50,000 rupees must be given as bail money. Apart from this, two sureties with relatives are mandatory. What a tragedy it is when a prisoner has to remain in prison because the fax machine used to send the bail order is out of order after the time and money have been paid and the bail has been set. Is this what justice is called?

It has been revealed that most of the cases in which bail has been filed in the Homagama High Court are false cases filed against the youth by the police of Kasbewa and Piyaandala.

Some have filed complaints against the officers of the two police stations to the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission. The majority of the reports sent to the government analyst for possession of narcotic substances and drug dealings have stated that there is no narcotic substance.

Sometimes ago a fiscal officer and a lawyer of the Colombo Commercial High Court threatened the airline control room to stop a flight belonging to the Russian “Aeroflot” airline company. The Colombo Commercial High Court had issued an injunction order against the airline company not the plane. The Commercial High Court did not fax the order to the flight control room at Katunayake Airport. The fiscal officer also took the court order. The behavior of the fiscal officer led to a diplomatic chaos and he was subsequently suspended. Although we have the Homagama fiscal officer to bring the order, at least we are not able to email the bail order.

When an officer of the Kasbewa Magistrate’s Court asked an officer of the Homagama High Court if the fax machine of the Kasbewa Magistrate’s Court is not working, the order could not be sent by email, the officer said there is no order given to send the bail order by email. Although he tried to go to Homagama to take a copy of the bail order, but failed because there was no order of issuing a copy of the bail order. It is also not allowed to fax the bail order to the external fax number. According to the procurement process, it is not possible to find a technician to repair the fax machine and then get a person from the related company to repair. When I called the company and informed them would not they would send a technician, they replied that they would send them on Monday. If the court’s fax machine is out of order, the defendants and their relatives have no choice but to wait for the bail order to be received by registered post.

Homagama High Court has granted bail to this young man on October 16. He was brought to court on October 18 for this case. His father paid an amount of 100 rupees to the Homagama High Court for faxing the document and on the same day Kasbewa courts has been informed about it. Lawyer Manoj Nanayakkara has forwarded the bail application to the Homagama High Court on behalf of the young man.

The relatives of the inmates made many efforts to persuade the additional registrar of the Kasbebewa Magistrate’s Court and his staff to release the young man without sending him to prison. Fax technology is an old one and today it has been replaced by email and SMS messaging. Talking about a modern technology, if old tools are used, it is not an improvement, but it shows a backwardness. If we had switched from fax technology to e-mail technology, this crisis would not have arisen today.

Today, from banks to the electricity board, all institutions are using digital technology.

Translated by Robinhood