On Tuesday, addressing a letter to the Chief Justices of all the High Courts, the Chairperson of the Supreme Court e-Committee, Justice D Y Chandrachud stated that it may not be possible to conduct Physical Hearings in Courts due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Courts may resort to hybrid model of hearing in coming days.
He then authorizes the High Courts to make Video Conferencing arrangements on any platform of their choice and re-appropriating available funds in case they face any issues with the present VC platform.
The letter read:
"Considering the present situation of the pandemic, consistent with the need to protect the safety of lawyers, litigants, court staff, judges and other stake-holders, it may not be possible to conduct only physical hearings of court proceedings and we may have to rely upon a hybrid model of hearing for some time. We need to plan effectively to be able to deal with all exigencies."
Justice Chandrachud further noted that over the past months of Virtual Hearings, concerns have been raised by Advocates, Bar Associations and Litigants about the difficulties faced by them while participating in proceedings conducted via Virtual Mod.
They flaged poor connectivity, inferior audio-video quality and failure to accommodate all the Lawyers who appear in a case at a time as some of the issues.
Justice Chandrachud expressed his concerns as SC e-Committee Chairperson and said that these issues highlighted by vital stake-holders need to be urgently redressed. He stressed on the importance of the co-operation of the Bar and Litigants for the efficient dispensation of justice.
The letter further read:
"The vision of the e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India is to establish a judicial system which is inclusive, efficient and equitable. Promoting and enabling technology driven courts is one such step towards making justice accessible and affordable for all persons. The virtual court system must be effective and provide equitable access to all users. It has to be efficacious and must inspire confidence amongst users to fulfill the guarantee of access to justice under Article 21 of the Constitution. The onus falls on us to strengthen and streamline justice dispensation through virtual courts,"
Justice Chandrachud acknowledged that 96,74,257 cases were examined via Virtual Mode during pandemic by High Courts and District Courts as on 30 April 2021.
The Supreme Court Judge also highlighted that the SC e-Committee is working on the modalities for adopting one Video Conferencing solution for all Courts across India.
More excerpts from letter:
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, the e-Committee innovatively adopted ICT tools to ensure dispensation of justice in a seamless manner. During the course of the pandemic, 96,74,257 cases (High Courts: 33,76,408 and District Courts: 62,97,849) were heard by courts through video conferencing from 25 March 2020 till 30 April 2021 using the digital infrastructure provided by the e-Courts project. Globally, India has been at the forefront in conducting cases through video conferencing during the pandemic,"
"the High Courts may opt for a suitable video conferencing solution from any of the available options till the e-Committee comes up with one video conferencing solution for all courts. For reappropriation of the allotted funds or any finance related query to secure video conferencing licenses or for upgradation of existing video conferencing systems, you may request the Computer Committee of the High Court to seek the assistance of Mr Ramesh Babu, Member (Project Management), e-Committee. Our team in the e-Committee will deal with all such requests with the highest priority and will be closely monitoring the situation,"
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