THE Supreme Court in In Re: Guidelines For Court Functioning Through Video Conferencing During Covid-19 Pandemic passed the order on April 6, 2020 that gave legal recognition to the idea of virtual hearings that it has been struggling with for more than a year now. After a prolonged period of time of 527 days, the physical courtrooms were sought to be opened in a phased manner in the apex court. A hybrid mode of hearing has now been initiated from September 1, 2021, with Mondays and Fridays being completely virtual.
However, on the first day, post-lunch, there was no one to be seen around the courtrooms. Before Court Room No. 6, where the bench of Justice Sanjay Kish an Kaul and Justice MM Sundresh sit, there were 24 participants virtually and stalwarts of the Court, such as Senior Advocates Datar and Naphade chose to appear online. Similar was the situation before Court Room No. 5 where the bench of Justice L Nageswara Rao, Justice BR Gavai and Justice BV Nagarathna sit. There were 55 persons who had appeared virtually with only four lawyers present physically.
On September 2, the Chief Justice of India (CJI), NV Ramana, had to mute himself multiple times to address the technical glitches during hearings. Once just before being muted, the CJI could be heard saying: “What is this…”. Addressing the court staff, he remarked: “What is happening? Why is the system deteriorating with each passing day? We can’t even see the face of counsels.” In his court, over 50 participants were present virtually and none physically. As yet, the “reopening” of the top court does not seem to be quite a success.
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