No democratic society can exist without a functing dispute redressal system, pandemic however, brought with it several challenges to even basic pillars of democracy. The courts met the challenge by going virtual although it had its own limitations. The Supreme Court on Wednesday indicated that physical hearing in the apex court, which is conducting proceedings virtually amid the COVID-19 pandemic since March last year, may resume soon.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana said that a physical hearing in the apex court may start within 10 days. The bench said in the virtual hearing has technical glitches causing proper voice or video not to reach the other people. We may hear physically after one week or 10 days, the CJI observed. The system of virtual hearings was well provided by every court. The requirement to provide for court appearances were also taken care off by providing ids for emailing the same. From Febraury 1, 2021 three additional virtual courts were notified further to do virtual hearings.
The bench, also comprising Justices Surya Kant and Aniruddha Bose, said this while hearing pleas against the Bombay High Court verdict in a matter related to tariff order passed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India last year.
The top court has been hearing cases through video-conferencing since March last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and several bar bodies and lawyers have been demanding that physical hearings should resume immediately. The active cases in many states are coming down as pert he Government of India website and New Delhi also where the Supreme Court is situated.
In July this year, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) had written a letter to the CJI urging that a physical hearing in the apex court be resumed saying the COVID-19 situation in the national capital has become almost normal”. Earlier in March this year, the apex court had commenced hybrid proceedings, a combination of virtual and physical hearing, amid demands by lawyers for resumption of complete physical hearings.
Not only hearings, but Internataional Women’s day celebrations happened virtually during the pandemic.
