Chief Justice presents court statistics

Khal Baharulalam & Fadley Faisal

STATISTICS of cases in litigations for both civil and criminal cases in the country were laid out by the Chief Justice Dato Seri Paduka Haji Kifrawi bin Dato Paduka Haji Kifli at the opening of the Legal Year 2014 yesterday at the Supreme Court Building.

The total revenue collected last year amounted to $5,430,245.55 compared to $6,810,368.73 the year before. With concern to the Small Claims Tribunal which is currently in its second year of operations, five registered cases were recorded – three of which had been disposed of successfully.

A marginal decline was established in the number of bankruptcy cases in 2013, with 338 cases recorded, nearing half of the previous year’s 661 cases recorded in the High Court. Also in decline is the number of marriages recorded in the Magistrate’s Court last year, dropping from 184 in the previous year to 89. In relation to this, 33 divorce cases had been recorded in 2013, adding one more from the previous year’s records.

Forty-one criminal cases were registered in the High Court in 2013, an increase from the previous year’s record of 28 cases. However, the number of civil cases in the High Court has decreased from 97 in 2012 to 83 last year.

Both figures for civil and criminal appeals have fallen from the High Court and Intermediate Court to the Court of Appeal, with civil appeals reducing from 12 to 11 from 2012 to last year. The number of criminal appeals to the Court of Appeal last year was reduced to 15 from the previous year’s number of 19.

Three capital cases were heard before the High Court in 2013, two of which are murder cases awaiting trial and the remaining one drugs case currently on trial.

On the one hand, 50 criminal appeals to the High Court from the Magistrate’s Court were recorded in 2013, in comparison to the 53 criminal appeals in the previous year, while civil appeals to the High Court from the Magistrate’s Court reduced from three in 2012 to one in 2013.

High Court and Intermediate Court civil cases (Chamber Hearings) that were registered for hearing before the Senior Registrars and Registrars dwindled down by 188 from 394 in 2012 to 206 last year.

While the amount of bankruptcy notices have shrunk within the period between 2012 to 2013, Receiving Orders have increased by 258 in numbers, which totalled up to 919 Receiving Orders in 2013. Adjudication Orders have also increased in 2013, with a total of 67 which is 16 more than the previous year’s total.

The Intermediate Court accumulated 217 civil matters registration in 2013, 20 more than in the previous year. Sharing a relative increase in numbers is the registration of criminal matters in the Intermediate Court, with 46 recorded, 18 more than in 2012.

Meanwhile, the Magistrate’s Court saw mostly a decline in criminal cases throughout the four districts, excluding that in the Belait District – which amounted to 574 cases, adding 278 from the previous year’s records. A total of 1,770 cases were registered in Bandar Seri Begawan last, a drop of 219 from that in 2012. In the Tutong District Magistrate’s Court, 82 cases were registered in 2013, a remarkable decline of 69 cases from the previous year. The Temburong District saw no criminal cases registered last year.

On Civil Cases figures in the Magistrates, Bandar Seri Begawan recorded 895 suits in 2013 as against 1,182 filed in 2012; Belait District saw 173 suits registered in 2013 as against 236 filed in 2012; Tutong District saw 122 suits registered as against 207 filed in 2012. However, no civil matters were registered in the Temburong District.

Nineteen inquests were heard before the Bandar Seri Begawan Magistrate’s Court last year, as opposed to 27 in the previous year. In the Tutong District last year heard no inquests as opposed to hearing four in 2012. Both the Belait and Temburong Districts heard no inquests in 2012 and 2013.

Sixty-one applications were made under the Lunacy Act in Bandar Seri Begawan in 2013 as opposed to 79 in 2012. In the Belait District, no applications were made in 2013 compared to 10 in the previous year. No applications were made in the Temburong and Tutong Districts for both 2013 and 2012.

The figures for Statutory Declarations filed in the Bandar Seri Begawan court were 15,681 in 2013, a slight drop from 16,370 in the previous year. The Belait District court saw 2,390 Statutory Declarations filed last year as opposed to 2,511 in 2012. Tutong District saw 1,141 Statutory Declarations filed in 2013, a huge drop from 2,033 from the previous year. In Temburong District, 201 Statutory Declarations were filed in 2013 as against 150 in 2012.

Meanwhile, 185 applications for Letters of Administration were registered in Bandar Seri Begawan last year, 112 of which had been granted. Four applications for probate were registered with three of them granted. In Tutong, 47 applications for Letters of Administration were registered last year, 41 of which were granted. In Belait, 84 applications for Letters of Administration were granted out of the 87 applications registered with two applications for Probate were registered, two of which were granted. In Temburong District, four Letters of Administration were granted out of the eight applications.

In the Juvenile Court, 23 cases were registered in Bandar Seri Begawan in 2013, one less than that registered the previous year. A single case was registered in the Juvenile Court in Tutong in 2013 while zero was registered in the Belait and Temburong Districts.

Of the 23 case registered in 2013 in Bandar Seri Begawan Juvenile Court, nine were Beyond Parental Control applications, four were Child Protection Order applications, five Juvenile Traffic cases and five Juvenile Arrest cases were registered in 2013.


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