Verification of Legal Documents in Judicial Services using Blockchain Technology

A safe and effective way to validate legal documents is becoming more important, as document forgery appears to be an increasing problem within Sri Lanka's legal system. Conventional procedures that rely on manual verification are challenging, prone to corruption, and susceptible to human error. This paper proposes a blockchain-based method for verifying legal documents to address these challenges. In the proposed approach, a SHA-512 hash value is generated for the entire content of the uploaded document, as discussed in the research methodology, and stored on the blockchain. Additionally, a QR code that serves as a digital signature is created containing the verifiers and verification details. This method also utilizes Ethereum smart contracts for storing the hash values, ensuring decentralization and immutability. The system demonstrates 91% accuracy for documents written in Sinhala script, due to difficulties in recognizing some Sinhala characters, and 100% accuracy for documents written in English script. The overall accuracy for both Sinhala and English scripted documents is 95%. This study aims to enhance document integrity using advanced cryptographic hashing techniques. It also identifies challenges specific to the judicial sector when exploring blockchain applications in real-world legal contexts. The proposed system is well-suited for high-security applications in Sri Lankan court services and It would make them perfect. However, limitations exist in terms of document types and classifications, particularly for documents written in Sinhala and English. Future work will focus on improving Sinhala document verification, incorporating user authentication methods such as passkeys and OTP, and developing the system as a mobile application.