Perak Wants Syariah Court To Be More Accessible, People-friendly - MB

IPOH,  Sept 10 (Bernama) -- The Perak government, through the State Syariah Judicial Department, continues to strive to meet the needs of the community by providing more efficient and faster syariah legal services to make the syariah courts more accessible and people-friendly.

Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Saarani Mohamad said that, to ensure easier access to syariah justice, every syariah court building in Perak has been carefully designed to house both the Syariah Lower Court and the Syariah High Court under one roof.

He said this innovative approach not only simplifies court-related matters for the public but also optimises the use of resources, enhances the efficiency of syariah justice administration, and provides complete facilities, including registrars and courtrooms for all three courts.

According to Saarani, the three courts are the Syariah Lower Court, the Syariah High Court, and the Syariah Appeal Court. 

“However, the state government’s efforts to strengthen the role of the syariah courts go beyond merely providing facilities. Continuous improvements are being made, particularly in upgrading old buildings, facilities, and outdated equipment to ensure practicality and alignment with the latest technological developments.

“All of these measures are intended to make the syariah courts more approachable and to build public confidence in syariah judicial services in Perak,” he said during a question-and-answer session at the State Legislative Assembly sitting today.

He was responding to a question from Salina Samsudin (BN–Behrang), who asked about the steps taken by the state government to make syariah judicial services more accessible to the people.

Meanwhile, Saarani said that divorce-related cases are consistently kept under control.

In 2023, he said, only 0.2 per cent of such cases were left unresolved, with just 23 cases pending out of 12,501 cases which had been heard and monitored under the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) for case resolution.

“In 2024, the percentage dropped even further, with only 0.01 per cent, or 10 cases, unresolved out of a total of 13,373 cases.

“For 2025, 36 cases were placed under KPI monitoring, and as of June 2025, 50 per cent of these cases have already been resolved, leaving 18 cases still in progress,” he said.

He said this in response to an original question by Rahim Ismail (PN-Changkat Jering) regarding the steps taken by the relevant authorities in dealing with the backlog of cases in the Syariah Court and initiatives to speed up the process and reduce the burden of backlog cases.

-- BERNAMA