Rustam Minnikhanov: Digitalization of court system increases the accessibility of justice including people with disabilities

On 18 February Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov took part in the XV report-and-election conference of judges of the republic held in Kazan.

In his keynote report, the Chairman of the Supreme Court of the republic Ilgiz Gilazov said that the number of people convicted of corruption sharply increased in 2021. The number of corruption cases in courts increased by 62 per cent compared to those in 2020 and sexual assault and disorderly conduct cases grew by 21 per cent, he clarified.

On the top of that the number of convicted of extortion dropped twice, he said.

All in all more than 13 000 people were convicted by the court last year, Gilazov concluded.

Speaking at the conference, Rustam Minnikhanov said that despite all difficulties the past year was favourable for the economy of the republic and expressed his gratitude to the government of the country and President Putin for continuous support and help.

Speaking about digital technologies in legal procedures, he informed: “Changes giving the possibility of remote participation of citizens in court hearings have been introduced into the remedial law. As was already stated such practice was implemented by courts of the republic as a pilot project and proved to be efficient. There also appeared the system of an advance e-appointment to specialists, which saves time both of court employees and citizens. Digitalization of court system increases the accessibility of justice including people with disabilities”.

Tatarstan President said that the development of the e-document circulation system in the sixth judicial cassation circuit was the result of constructive interaction between the republic and the court and stressed that Tatarstan is always ready to take part in development of digital technologies.

“As it has been mention the judges work load is growing every year and for the second year you are considering cases of violation of coronavirus safety requirements and more than 300 000 people were brought to administrative responsibility”, Minnikhanov said. This means that the population does not understand the seriousness of situation and it is necessary to step up the clarification work, he added.

Speaking about corruption cases, he said that most important was corruption prevention and the preventive measures should be implemented everywhere.

He stressed that he was especially worried about the growth of employment disputes by 20 per cent. “The most of them are related to the recovery of wages. This is absolutely unacceptable for us as the population’s incomes must not decrease. The public power bodies together with enterprises should step up work to recover the salary debts and prevent such cases”, Minnikhanov added.

He also mentioned the illegal alcohol circulation which needs close attention as it has more than doubled.

Speaking about working environment and salaries of magistrates, he said that “to prevent labour outflow I have made a decision about quarterly bonus payments to those working at magistrates and allocating money on their training.

Moreover the work to connect magistrates to the Justice state information system, which makes it possible to file a lawsuit in court through the Internet, will be continued, he concluded.

In the end of the meeting Tatarstan President handed in state awards of the republic to the most outstanding workers of the justice system.