FROM E-FILING TO EVIDENCE INTEGRITY: DEVELOPING A SECURE DIGITAL CHAIN-OF-CUSTODY FRAMEWORK FOR PAKISTAN’S E-COURTS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SINGAPORE AND THE UNITED KINGDOM

Abstract

The increasing digitization of judicial processes has transformed the manner in which courts receive, store, transmit and examine documentary and electronic evidence. Pakistan is currently moving towards a more integrated national electronic filing framework. In August 2026, the Supreme Court of Pakistan initiated consultation on a Standardized National E-Filing Framework intended to create a common electronic filing approach across the Supreme Court, High Courts and District Courts. Earlier, the National Judicial Policy Making Committee had approved the initiation of e-filing in District Courts as the first phase of the national e-Court project. These developments demonstrate that Pakistan is moving from paper-based litigation towards digitally managed judicial proceedings. However, electronic filing alone does not resolve the evidentiary problems associated with authenticity, integrity, preservation, access, alteration and traceability of digital evidence.This study examined the need for a secure digital chain-of-custody framework within Pakistan's developing e-Court architecture. It comparatively analyses selected practices in Singapore and the United Kingdom, where electronic filing and digital case-management systems provide established mechanisms for the submission and management of court documents. Singapore's Integrated Case Management System provides electronic filing, electronic case records, secure e-case repositories and simultaneous access to case-related information, while the UK's CE-File system provides electronic submission, automated confirmation, acceptance or rejection mechanisms, categorization of documents and electronic case management.Using qualitative comparative legal research, the article identifies the distinction between electronic filing and evidentiary integrity and proposes a Digital Chain-of-Custody Framework for Pakistan. The proposed framework incorporates unique evidence identification, cryptographic hashing, timestamping, metadata preservation, role-based access, audit trails, transfer records, integrity verification and judicial certification. The article argues that Pakistan's developing e-Court system should not merely reproduce paper filing in electronic form but should establish an integrated evidentiary architecture capable of documenting the entire lifecycle of digital evidence.