SC to frame guidelines for courts' functioning through video conferencing during COVID-19 pandemic

The Supreme Court will on Monday take up a matter related to framing of guidelines for functioning of courts through video conferencing during coronavirus pandemic.

A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde and comprising justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao will hear the matter listed suo motu (on its own) at 12.30 PM.

Since the countrywide lockdown from March 25 to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, the top court has been hearing extremely urgent matters through video conferencing which include bail cases and pleas related to hardship faced by migrant workers.

The top court, which has restricted its functioning to prevent the spread of coronavirus, had earlier issued a circular that only matters of urgent nature would be heard through video conferencing.

Earlier, in the day senior advocate and former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President wrote to Chief Justice Bobde and suggested measures to deal with the problems faced by the apex court during the COVID-19 crisis.

Singh suggested that the Supreme Court rules should be amended urgently to provide for compulsory video conference hearing for certain types of matter and voluntary video conferencing hearing for other types of matters.

He said that to reduce person to person contact and rush of advocates in the Supreme Court certain modalities are required to be put in place immediately.

Justice Chandrachud, who is also the chairperson of the Supreme Court E-committee, had on April 3 held a meeting through video conferencing with high court judges heading such committees to ensure urgent matters are heard promptly and litigants are not required to come to court during the lockdown period.

He had emphasised that prompt measures be adopted "at this time of crisis" and said the use of technology must be institutionalized even after the lockdown is lifted and normalcy returns.

Justice Chandrachud had reviewed the measures initiated by the high courts in the operation of virtual courts and after noting the difficulties faced by some states in e-filing of cases, he proposed a meeting of the chairpersons of the computer committees of the high courts to discuss the issues.

The committee had also discussed the possibility of live streaming of court proceedings held by video conferencing but based on an assessment of technical issues like availability of bandwidth and dedicated servers, it was felt that the recordings should be hosted on court websites by the next day to ensure that people have access to the proceedings.

Justice Chandrachud also informed the judges about an e-filing module which is in an advanced stage of development in the Supreme Court and it was agreed that such modes may be used during the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The committee also noted that, ideally, judicial officers and advocates should work from their homes but it was left to the high courts to decide to what extent this was feasible.

In a landmark verdict in September 2018, the apex court had taken a major leap in imparting transparency in functioning of judiciary by allowing live streaming of court proceedings of cases of constitutional and national importance.