The present appeal from order is filed by the
appellant-wife against the order dated 11.06.2024
passed by the learned Additional Family Court
Judge, Dehradun in Matrimonial Original Suit No.
543 of 2021 'Shashank Balooni vs. Smt. Madhuri
Joshi', whereby the application Paper No. 125C2 for
recording her evidence by video-conference filed by
the respondent/appellant was disposed of.
The appellant-wife filed an application Paper
No. 125C2 as per Schedule 1 of the "High Court of
Uttarakhand Video Conferencing Rules-2020"
5. The Coordinate Bench of this Court vide order dated
29.07.2024 directed that appellant-wife can appear
through video-conferencing before the lower court.
This order of the Coordinate Bench has effectively
granted the relief, however, the appeal was not
finally disposed of.
2025:UHC:1640-DB
6. It is a matter of fact that the High Court of
Uttarakhand vide its Notification No.
260/UHC/Admin.A/2020 dated 10.10.2020 notified
'High Court of Uttarakhand Video Conferencing
Rules-2020'.
7. As per Rule 3(i) of Rules 2020 the video conferencing
facilities may be used at all stages of judicial
proceedings and proceedings conducted by the Court.
The general principles as enshrined in Chapter
II of Rules, 2020 are reproduced here as under:-
3. General Principles Governing Video
Conferencing
(i)Video conferencing facilities may be used at all
stages of judicial proceedings and proceedings
conducted by the Court.
(ii) All proceedings conducted by a Court by way of
video conferencing shall be judicial proceedings and
all the courtesies and protocols applicable to a
physical court shall apply to these virtual
proceedings.
(iii) All relevant statutory provisions applicable to
judicial proceedings including provisions of the CPC,
CrPC, Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, Indian
Evidence Act, 1872 (abbreviated hereafter as the
Evidence Act), Oaths Act, 1969 and Information
Technology Act, 2000 (abbreviated hereafter as the
IT Act), shall apply to proceedings conducted by
video conferencing.
(iv) Subject to maintaining independence,
impartiality and credibility of judicial proceedings
and subject to such directions as the High Court
2025:UHC:1640-DB
may issue, Courts may adopt such technological
advances as may become available from time to
time.
(v) The Rules as applicable to a Court shall mutatis
mutandis apply to a Commissioner appointed by the
Court to record evidence and to an inquiry officer
conducting an inquiry.
(vi) There shall be no unauthorised recording of the
proceedings by any person or entity
(vii) The person defined in Rule 2(xi) shall provide
identity proof as recognised by the Government of
India/State Government/Union Territory to the
Court point coordinator via personal email. In case
identity proof is not readily available the person
concerned shall furnish the following personal
details: name, parentage and permanent address,
as also, temporary address if any.
8. The Rule 5 of Chapter II of Rules, 2020 says that
there shall be a Coordinator at the remote point i.e.
at the place where a person as witness is required to
be present or appear through a video link.
Sub Rule 5.3.1 of Rules, 2020 further says
that if the place, where a person who is to be
examined, is overseas then the remote point
Coordinator shall be an official of an Indian
Consulate/the relevant Indian Embassy/the relevant
High Commission of India.
9. As observed above, these Rules were notified on
10.10.2020 and circulated among all the Courts.
After notification of the Rules, two Circular Letters
2025:UHC:1640-DB
vide C.L. 2/UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 05.01.2023
and C.L. 7 dated 10.07.2023 were issued exhorting
upon courts to provide facility of video conferencing
as per the Rules, 2020.
UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 12.07.2023 was also
issued and by this circular letter, the High Court
expressed its displeasure for not making use of
Video-Conferencing Rules, 2020 when the same was
required and for not providing video-conferencing
facility to the advocates and litigants to appear
before the Court concerned through Video-
Conferencing if they wish to do so.
This circular letter also expressed its
displeasure that this was being done
UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 05.01.2023 and Circular
Letter No. 7 dated 10.07.2023 and directed that any
deviation of the directions issued aforesaid circulars
without any justified reason shall be dealt seriously.
10. Perusal of the impugned order would reflect that, by
directing to appear in person, the concerned
Additional Family Court Judge effectively disallowed
the application of the appellant-wife without giving
any reason for getting her examined as witness in
her defence through Video-Conferencing as she was
out of India residing at San Francisco in the United
States of America and because of her nature of job,
she was unable to come to India for her evidence.
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The concerned Family Court did not consider
the circumstances stated in the application of the
appellant-wife and without giving any reasons
surprisingly fixed a lump sump amount of `10,000/-
for expenditures of whole journey of the appellant-
wife from U.S.A. for appearing in the concerned
court.
In the opinion of this Court a lump sump
amount of `10,000/- for travelling from San
Francisco to Dehradun and staying here in India is
very meagre amount.
The impugned order dated 11.06.2024 has
been passed by the Additional Family Court Judge in
UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 05.01.2023, C.L. No. 7
UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 12.07.2023.
It would be pertinent to iterate that in para 5 of
C.L. No. 15 UHC/Admin.B/2022 dated 12.07.2023, it
was directed that any deviation issued in above
circulars without justified reasons shall be dealt
seriously.
In view of above, the impugned order dated
11.06.2024 passed by the learned Additional Family
Court Judge, Dehradun is liable to be set-aside.
The present appeal is hereby allowed. The
application of the appellant-wife for recording her
2025:UHC:1640-DB
evidence in defence through Video Conferencing is
allowed.
11. It is given to understand that India has its consulate
at San Francisco. Therefore, any official at Indian
consulate San Francisco can act as Coordinator and
this request can be made by the court through
proper channel for the same.
12. Copy of this judgment be circulated among all the
courts within the State of Uttarakhand to ensure the
effective use of High Court Video Conferencing Rules
2020 as and when necessary.
13. The copy of this judgment be also sent to the
Director, Uttarakhand Judicial and Legal Academy
to make it part of the curriculum of Induction
Training and refreshers course of all the judges of
the District courts of the States within a period of
next six months from today.
(VivekBharti Sharma, J.) (Manoj Kumar Tiwari, J.)
06.03.2025 06.03.2025
Akash
