KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The Federal Court of Malaysia will for the first time allow the public to watch a livestream of hearings, as part of several steps to keep the system running even during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

The process will commence at 10am tomorrow via the judiciary body’s official web portal at www.kehakiman.gov.my. Although court hearings have already been shifted online for some time, they were not previously open to the public.

"To complete and support case hearings online, Malaysia’s judiciary body has decided to initiate this pilot project, that is the livestreaming of hearings,” said the Chief Registrar’s Office in a statement today.

It added that in doing so, this will ensure the public’s access to jurisprudence remains constant.

On March 17, the day before the ongoing movement control order (MCO) came into effect, it was announced that trials in all courts nationwide would be suspended until March 31, with new trial dates for pending cases to be fixed later on.

Subsequently, on March 30, the Federal Court of Malaysia decided to conduct trials via video conferencing, after documents by the Chief Registrar on March 26 listed three plausible options for resolving cases online, either by email, using the existing e-Review system, or by video conferencing.