The Supreme Court Secretariat informs that no transcripts were written in two hearings recently held in petitions filed by HaMoked: In response to a complaint launched by HaMoked on this matter, the Supreme Court registrar notified that the secretariat’s notice was due to an error and that following the complaint, instructions on this matter have been reiterated.

In response to a request to receive the transcripts of hearings held before the Supreme Court in two petitions filed by HaMoked, the court’s secretariat informed that no transcripts were written. Therefore, HaMoked contacted the President of the Supreme Court on 8 July 2009, requesting information as to why no transcript was written - transcripts are a legal obligation – and demanding she see to it that this does not recur.

On 20 July 2009, the Supreme Court’s Registrar informed that the President of the Supreme Court passed the matter on to him. An inquiry with the court’s secretariat revealed that the notification regarding the absence of transcript was erroneous. The letter states that this was an administrative error resulting from the fact that at the time HaMoked requested the transcripts from the court, their final version had yet to be authorized and therefore, the transcripts did not appear on the court’s computer, despite the fact that they did exist.

According to the registrar’s notice, following the incident, and in order to prevent similar claims from being raised in the future, the instructions regarding handling of Supreme Court hearing transcripts were reiterated to the relevant divisions.