Tanzania
Judicature and Application of Laws (Electronic Filing) Rules
- Published on 13 April 2018
- Not commenced
- [This is the version of this document from 13 April 2018.]
- [Note: The original publication document is not available and this content could not be verified.]
Part I – Preliminary provisions
1. Citation
These Rules may be cited as the Judicature and Application of Laws (Electronic Filing) Rules, 2018.2. Application
3. Interpretation
In these Rules, unless the context requires otherwise:"authorized user" means a partner, director, officer or employee of a registered entity who designated as an authorized user;"Chief Registrar" means the Chief Registrar appointed under section 27(1) of the Judiciary Administration Act;"court" means a district court, a court of resident magistrate, the High Court and the Court of Appeal;"Director of Case Management" means the director responsible for case management appointed by theJudicial Service Commission;"ECF" means Electronic Case File created by documents filed electronically and such other documents and exhibits referred to under rule 9;"electronic filing" means the submission of documents through the electronic filing system but does not include e-mailing or sending a document by acsimile;"electronic filing system" means the system of electronic filing and electronic service of documents via the internet established under these Rules;"electronic service" means the electronic transmission of a notice of filing, which contains a hyperlink for accessing the document, to the electronic mail (e-mail)address of a party who has consented to electronic service;"electronic signature" has the meaning ascribed to it by the Electronic Transactions Act;"entity" means the Attorney General’s Chambers, a department of the Government or a public authority, a sole proprietorship, an incorporated partnership,including a limited liability partnership and a limited partnership, a law firm, a company or other body corporate;"law officer" includes a state attorney, a solicitor and any legal officer employed in public service;"notification" means a system-generated notice acknowledging activity within the electronic filing system;"party" means any party to a proceeding and includes an accused person;"PDF" means Portable Document Format compatible with Adobe Reader which includes:(a)electronically converted PDFs which are created from word processing documents (MS Word, WordPerfect, etc.) using Adobe Acrobat or similar software and are text searchable, accessible, and their file size is small; and(b)scanned PDFs which are created from paper documents run through an optical scanner and have a larger file size and lower quality image;"Registrar" means Registrar of the Court of the Appeal, Registrar of the High Court, a Deputy Registrar and includes an acting Registrar or Deputy Registrar;"registered user" means an individual or entity with an assigned username and password identification authorized code by the Judiciary to access and utilize the electronic filing system (EFS);"secure electronic signature" means a signature duly recognized in terms of section 7 of the Electronic Transactions Act;"service bureau" means a service bureau established under these Rules;"user" means a registered user or an authorized user registered with the electronic filing system; and"user ID" means the e-mail address provided or identification code assigned during registration that is used to log in to the electronic filing system.Part II – Electronic filing services
4. Establishment of an electronic filing system
5. Chief Registrar to supervise the electronic filing service
The electronic filing service shall be under the supervision of the Chief Registrar.6. Establishment of service bureau
7. Registered user and authorised user
Part III – Procedure for electronic filing of documents
8. Documents to electronically
All pleadings, petitions, applications, appeals and such °ther documents shall be filed electronically in accordance with these Rules.9. Official record of the court
The official record of the court shall be the electronic case file (ECF), proceedings pertaining to that case, together with any documents and exhibits filed under the conventional method.10. Procedure for electronic
11. Preparation and formatting of documents
12. Conversion to PDF
13. Signing of electronic documents
14. Affidavits in electronic form
15. Service of documents
16. Retention of originals
All documents filed electronically shall, subject to the time prescribed in the Retention and Disposal Schedule made under the Records and Archives Management Act, be preserved for production upon being so directed by the court at any time.17. Responsibilit y to produce originals
A party who has filed electronic documents shall be responsible for producing the originals of such documents and proving their authenticity.18. Discrepancy
Where a document was filed using the electronic filing system, and there is any inconsistency between the information entered into the electronic submission form of the document and the information contained in the document, the information contained in the document shall prevail.19. Access to electronic documents
Access to pleadings and other documents filed electronically in a case shall be provided only to the parties, their advocates or authorized representatives, upon mailing to the court an application along with a blank CDRom, DVD-Rom or any other memory device for a computer system.20. Exemption from electronic filing
21. Date and time of filing
22. Reckoning of date and time for service
Where a document is filed with, served on delivered or otherwise conveyed to the Registrar or magistrate in-charge using the electronic filing service and is subsequently accepted by the Registrar or magistrate incharge, it shall be deemed to be filed, served, delivered or conveyed(a) where the document is filed, served, delivered or conveyed by electronic transmission from the computer system of the authorised user or registered user, on the date and at the time that the first part of the transmission is received in the electronic filing system;23. When time for service begins to run
24. Computation of time
25. Hard copies of pleadings and other documents filed electronically
Hard copies of all pleadings and other docum filed electronically may be printed by:26. Electronically filed documents to be titled
All documents filed electronically shall be titled in the same manner as they are titled when filed in the conventional manner.27. Storage and retrieval of electronically filed pleadings and other documents
Part IV – User accounts and notifications
28. User ID
The e-mail address provided or identification assigned during registration shall serve as a unique User ID.29. Eligibility and registration
30. User Password
During registration, the user shall designate a unique password in accordance with the specifications given by the system and may reset his password at any time.31. Confidcntiality of User ID and password
32. Multiple User Accounts
A user or an authorized user may set up multiple accounts using multiple e-mail addresses and shall monitor each account and upload filings correctly.33. Receipt of notifications
34. Payment of court fees
Court fees may be paid electronically through a mode of payment prescribed by the Chief Justice.Part V – Signing of orders, judgments, etc.
35. Electronic signing of judgments, orders, etc.
36. Electronic signatures to have the force of conventional signatures
Any judgment, ruling, decree, order, notice or summons signed electronically shall have the same force and effect as if the Judge, the Registrar or the magistrate had affixed his signature to a paper copy of the order and it had been entered on the record in the conventional method.History of this document
13 April 2018 this version
Published