MOSCOW, March 27 (RAPSI) – Russian President Vladimir Putin has submitted a bill on improvement of judicial system to the State Duma, the database of the lower house of parliament reads.

The bill’s goals are stated as ensuring that citizens and organizations get access to justice and that it is going to be conducted with maximum openness and transparency. Also, the bill envisions implementation of the principle of independence and objectivity for courts passing their judgments.

According to the bill, all court hearings in criminal and commercial cases are to be audio recorded with an option to appeal inaccuracy and incompleteness of these recordings.

Other changes include clarification of a judge assistant’s procedural role and a new option for a court to move from preliminary hearings in civil and commercial cases to the main hearings if there are no obstacles for this transition.

Russia has noted a recommendation of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers during the work on the bill. As such, the sides should not be able to influence the allocation of court cases to certain judges. The draft law reads that the allocation of cases is to be mainly conducted using an automatic information system.