Including the health care system in the country, the Corona outbreak has thrown challenges to many sectors including the Indian judiciary to attend the emergencies. In the wake of the pandemic, Supreme Court restricted the cases from March 13 while a notification was released stating that only urgent matters would be heard. It was also seen that the court blocked the entry of litigants, media person’s, legal interns into the courtrooms while arguments are taking place.
With the outbreak taking its worst form, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) passing a resolution to close the top court for a minimum four weeks from 23 March. However, in a recent revelation, the apex court on Friday issued a circular informing that it would continue to hear cases of “extreme urgency” through videoconferencing.
In the line of the circular issued, the judges will sit in the courtroom or the residence while the advocates will be appearing and make arguments for the cases through a separate monitoring room in the court premises or from their home. The cases would be heard through an app called ‘Vidyo’, via wish the counsel will be connected to the judges. Talking over the same, Senior Counsel KV Vishwanathan, who was one of the Counsel to appear before the Court through video conferencing shared his experience stating it to be enriching.
While this happens to be the first time that hearings in the Supreme Court are being conducted via video conferencing, various senior lawyers opined that the crisis forced out the judicial system to emerge in the line of changing technicalities.
