The Apex Court has heard more than 15,500 cases through video conferencing from March 23 till date.
Nearly 3,419 of those cases were connected cases, that is, cases involving the same issue which were heard along with the main case. The Supreme Court also disposed of about 4,300 cases during this period.
Aug 20 will be the 100th working day for the Top Court through the video conference facility.
The Court began hearing cases through video conference on March 23, a day before PM Narendra Modi announced the nationwide lockdown in view of the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Supreme Court also issued a circular on March 23 suspending entry of lawyers & litigants to the Court premises & directing that only extremely urgent cases would be taken up for hearing through video conferencing during the lockdown period.
The summer vacation which is usually 7 weeks long was cut short to 2 weeks this year so as to make up for the reduced number of cases which are being heard through video conference.
The hearings in the Top Court are conducted through the Vidyo app which can be downloaded on mobile phones & desktop. The platform is hosted on the servers of the National Data Centre of National Informatics Centre.
While the Judges on the bench join the video conference from the residence of one of the judges of the Apex Court, the lawyers join from their respective houses or chambers.
The number of benches hearing cases through video conference has increased steadily with time & so has the number of cases which are being heard per day. Initially the court used to hear 15 to 20 cases per day with 1 or 2 benches sitting each day. Currently, 5 to 6 benches sit everyday & hear more than 200 cases per day.
The number is still less in comparison to normal times when at least 500 to 700 cases are heard by the SC on a single day alone.
The Court is expected to resume physical hearing of cases in a limited manner in the coming days.
Source Link
Picture Source :
