COVID-19: 'Three Big Courtrooms to be prepared for Physical Hearing on experimental basis', decides Supreme Court 7-Judge Committee

In wake of gradual redemption of physical hearings in Court, the Supreme Court seven-judge committee led by Justice NV Ramana has asked Court officials to prepare three big Courtrooms for holding physical hearings in there within time period of a week.

Inter alia, the Committee has also suggested listing of matters after 10 days of the said Courtrooms being readied subject to the prior consent and willingness of all parties to participate in physical hearing set-up.

The seven-judge committee comprises of Justice NV Ramana, Justice Arun Mishra, Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Justice UU Lalit, Justice AM Khanwilkar, Justice DY Chandrachud, and Justice L Nageswara Rao.

In communication to the President of the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association, the Supreme Court has stated that in a meeting held on August 11, the said Committee of 7-Judges have decided that on an experimental basis and as a pilot-scheme, three of the larger courtrooms in the Supreme Court complex would be readied strictly adhering to the prescribed distancing and other norms as per medical advice.

The Communication stated that it is a Pilot Project and for now only a limited number of cases slotted for final hearing will be allowed to be listed in the three Courtrooms.

The expansion may be possible in future if the ground situation warrants, it mentioned.

The Court for now would continue to hear all other matters, including miscellaneous matters listed from Monday to Friday via Video Conferencing.

In the meeting so held, attendees also included Office bearers of the SCBA, the SCAORA, and the Bar Council of India.

Both the SCBA and SCAORA Presidents had earlier urged the Committee to restart physical functioning of the Court from August 18 onwards, with strict safety complaince. The Committee then stated that experts have suggested to start it after two weeks.

The Bar representatives were of the view that the COVID-19 situation may remain more or less the same after two weeks and thus urged that the Court to consider resuming its physical functioning earlier so that challenges can be resolved much earlier.

Read Communication Letter: