Delhi HC's advise to Lawyers: While joining the virtual hearing, close all the old windows to ensure you are not locked out, Read Order

Delhi High Court has advised all lawyers appearing through video conferencing in case, the meeting has not yet started, to close the said meeting window to ensure that they are not locked out and are able to join the hearing when they log in after the hearing has started.

The direction was issued on 29^th May,2020 by Justice Prathiba M. Singh.

Facts of the case

The Petition was filed under Section 29A of the Arbitration Act, 1996 seeking extension of time for pronouncement of the arbitral award and extension was granted and petition was disposed of.

Thereafter, Respondent’s Counsel contacted the Court master informing about the technical glitch they were facing and due to which Respondent’s counsel was unable to log in.

The court then sought a report from the IT Department. The IT Department’s report stated that Respondent’s Counsel tried to join the meeting before the scheduled time and concluded that-

If any participant tries to join the meeting before the scheduled time he gets an error message. So after starting of actual meeting the user needs to close the old tab and again join the meeting.

If the user does not close the old tab and tries to join the meeting from new tab the error message display asking the user to leave previous meeting.

Decision of Court

The court observed that the recording of appearance of lawyers is quite crucial especially during the lockdown period when so much effort is being made by lawyers to attend to their work, coordinate with the client, do filings and also attend hearings. The Court directed that Respondent’s counsels appearance be added to the order and be corrected and uploaded as corrigendum.

Read Order @LatestLaws.com: