Justice Chandrachud On Virtual Hearings Of Courts Not To Replace Physical Hearings

OVERVIEW

Justice DY Chandrachud, the chairman of the Supreme Court E-Committee, clarified on Friday while inaugurating the virtual launch of a new e-filing system and a judgment search initiative that the virtual hearings of the Courts has not been brought about with the intention of replacing physical hearings with virtual hearings.

The Judge said that the main intention of the bringing about of the virtual hearing system of the Courts is to continue with the proceedings even during the outbreak of the pandemic, to ensure the safety of the litigants, advocates and the judicial officers. The virtual hearings are just but a means to prove to the citizens of the country of the ‘flexibility’ of the judicial system of India and how they remained accessible to the general public who are seeking justice even in the midst of a pandemic which has brought most of the parts of the world to a standstill.

BACKGROUND

Various Bar Associations of various Courts have taken to protests for the onset and development of the various virtual system of court proceedings.

The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had recently petitioned against the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of Court judgements, against hybrid proceedings, which was disposed of by the Apex Court in the month of March, 2021.

On the disposing of the case, the President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) informed the apex Court of the intention of the members of the Bar to adopt paths of agitation in order to voice their concerns.

The eminent Justice Chandrachud commented during the inauguration of the e-filing system and the judgement search initiative "We began video conferencing as the platform for answering the problems of the pandemic ... not to replace physical hearings but to ensure that the courts were functional and available for those whose liberties and rights were being seriously infringed during this period, because we exist for the common citizens," he said.

He further observed, "I know that many High Courts have shown flexibility. For instance, recently, because of the onset of the second COVID wave in Maharashtra, Chief Justice Dipankar Datta has again adopted a virtual platform for conducting the hearings in the High Court. The idea is to show the flexibility of the Indian Judicial system. Not for a moment do we want to replace physical hearings. Nothing of the sort. But we are conscious of the need to protect the public health of our lawyers, of the litigants who come to our courts."

FURTHER DETAILS

Justice Chandrachud, the chairman of the e-courts committee of the Supreme Court recollected the note of protest by the Delhi Bar Association, not long before such inaugural event.

Such note expressed concerns over such new initiatives of virtual hearing and virtual accessibility of court proceedings and if such virtual courts were to ultimately replace the age-old and traditional physical hearings, now and even after the pandemic situation passes. 

Considering the apprehensions of such concerns, Justice Chandrachud went on to assure the Bar with his kind words, "Let me assuage, at the outset, to all members of Bar, for someone like me who holds everything to the Bar and the institution of the judiciary, nothing could be further from my mind than to replace the strength, the resilience of the open court system."

CONCLUSION

The Justice hoped to shed light on the intention of the introduction and subsequent growth of the virtual system of the Courts, with the comment "We are not here to introduce some new-fangled system over the system which has grown over the last 150 years or more. We want to strengthen our existing systems and to make them even more effective by incorporating the cooperation of all diverse stakeholders - the Bar, the Bench, the citizens and civil society." 

The results yearned for by such initiative was to make the services of the Court more accessible to the litigants as well as the lawyers. The general public might also just as well benefit from such initiatives.

In other news, at the outbreak of the second wave of the novel Coronavirus, the Delhi High Court has decided to operate thoroughly in the virtual mode till the 23rd of April, 2021.

WHAT IS YOUR OPINION REGARDING THE VIRTUAL HEARINGS OF THE COURTS? DO YOU THINK PHYSICAL COURTS WOULD ULTIMATELY LOSE ITS ESSENCE AND THE VIRTUAL HEARINGS WOULD TAKE ITS PLACE?  DO LET US KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!