In a notice on Monday, chief registrar of the Federal Court Zamri Bakar informed lawyers and the courts that the e-Jamin system, which allows bailors to post bail via online banking transactions, would be discontinued effective May 19.

“BHEUU (the legal affairs division) would like to clarify that the decision to cancel this system was made without our knowledge.

“The Prime Minister’s Department has decided to continue using the e-Jamin system in line with the government’s aspirations, and the desire of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, to encourage the digitisation of government service systems for the convenience it offers,” the division said today.

It said it should have been consulted before a decision was reached to discontinue the initiative, adding that stakeholders’ views should also have been considered.

Malaysia became the first country in Asean to roll out the online bail solution in February 2020, allowing a bailor to complete the bail procedure within 15 minutes by transferring the required amount online via a smartphone.

Under the conventional system, which could take several hours, bailors would need to be present at a bank, open an account, deposit the bail sum and surrender the bank book to the courts before an accused is freed on bail.

Several lawyers FMT spoke to yesterday expressed shock over the decision to halt the “convenient” e-Jamin system, warning that reverting to the “tedious” manual process might compromise the liberty of accused persons.

No reason was given by court officials on the sudden decision to do away with the e-Jamin system.