SC may resume physical hearing from September 1 in limited manner

The Supreme Court is likely to resume physical hearing of cases from September 1 in a limited manner.

According to apex court sources, the physical hearing of cases will be held in matters requiring lengthy hearings on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

However, the top court will continue with virtual hearings on Monday and Friday, which are miscellaneous days and number of matters listed before the benches are high.

With the onset of COVID-19 pandemic, the top court has been conducting virtual hearing of the cases and several representations have been made by the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Supreme Court Advocate on Record Bar Association (SCAORA) to the Chief Justice N V Ramana for resuming physical hearing in the courts.

In one of such meetings with SCAORA office bearers on Thursday, the Chief Justice informally told them that hybrid hearing is likely to start from next week.

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 but the system could not take off due to the onset of the second wave of COVID pandemic.

On August 18, the top court had 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 had then said that physical hearing in the apex court may start within 10 days.

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.

In July this year, the SCBA had written a letter to the CJI urging that physical hearing in the apex court be resumed saying the COVID-19 situation in the national capital has become almost normal".