India News | HC Directs District Courts, Tribunals to Keep Virtual Hearing Weblinks Open Entire Day

New Delhi, Jan 20 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Thursday directed all district courts and tribunals here to keep virtual hearing weblinks open from 10 AM every working day so that lawyers and litigants do not face any problem in appearing virtually for their cases during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The high court said it expects all the judicial officers of the subordinate courts to follow its orders to hold virtual or hybrid hearings in letter and spirit.

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“We, in the high court, follow the same system and find no reason why it should not be followed by the subordinate courts and tribunals,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said.

The bench took exception to the explanation offered by a judicial officer of a trial court here for not considering the request made by a lawyer to permit hybrid and video-conferencing hearing facilities, despite high court's directions.

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The bench asked the judicial officer to join the virtual hearing and asked why her court's weblink was not open on that particular day.

The metropolitan magistrate said she was not informed by her staff that such a request for virtual hearing has been received from the advocate and that disciplinary action has been taken against the concerned court staff.

The officer further said she has given standing instructions to her court staff to open the weblink and log in at sharp 10 AM and keep it open till the court timings or till the board is exhausted.

However, the high court said if that was the case then it failed to understand why the counsel had to face problem to log in for the virtual hearing on that day.

“We wish to tell you and all others that once there are directions, you have to follow them and you don't have any other option,” the bench said.

“We have called the judicial officer and counseled her and told her that the high court orders have to be scrupulously followed. She has assured us that they will be followed,” the bench said, adding that since it was the first time this incident happened, it was closing the issue for now.

“We expect the judicial officers to follow the orders of the high court to hold virtual/hybrid hearings in letter and spirit. All subordinate courts and tribunals should keep their weblinks open everyday at 10AM till the court holds its sittings so that any counsel/ party want to join virtually. He/ she can do so without giving prior intimation to the court staff,” it said.

The court further said if any advocate or litigant faces an issue in logging through the weblink for virtual hearing, he or she can give a complaint to the concerned District and Sessions Judge or presiding officer of the tribunal who shall look into the issue forthwith and solve the matter.

During the hearing, advocate K Parameshwar, representing the administrative side of the high court, submitted that as per the report received from the judicial officer, she keeps her weblink open the entire day and on the particular day, it was the fault of her court staff.

To this, the bench said, the explanation was no satisfactory and the officer cannot make anyone else a scapegoat.

“We will not swallow such lame excuses… She is giving nonsensical explanation. This is not the way you treat a division bench of the high court,” it said.

When the high court's lawyer said in view of the third wave of COVID-19 and yellow alert sounded by the Delhi government, they have requisitioned for additional cisco webex software licences, a platform used for conducting virtual hearings.

The bench said, “this is what we were apprehending that we should be ready with the infrastructure before the need arises, rather than a knee jerk reaction. When we were trying to impress upon all of you when there was no Omicron or third wave, you thought we were too conscious.”

The court was also informed by Delhi government, represented through additional standing counsel Shadan Farasat and Anuj Aggarwal, that necessary infrastructure has been put in place and consumer forums here will start virtual proceedings within a week and all quasi judicial bodies will start virtual hearings from February 1.

The court was hearing petitions by lawyers Anil Kumar Hajelay and Manashwy Jha who have sought various prayers, including conducting hybrid hearings in district courts on physical hearing days because of the COVID-19 threat.

Jha submitted that his prayers were relating to second wave of COVID-19 which is now over and the petition has become infructous and sought to withdraw it. The court allowed his plea and disposed of the petition.

Earlier, Hajelay had filed and application informing that despite its November, 2021 directions given to subordinate courts to permit hybrid and video-conferencing hearing facilities when requested, it was not being considered.

The counsel had submitted that despite sending email, messages and requests to the staff of concerned trial court for hybrid hearing, it was neither considered nor responded to and the case was dismissed for want of prosecution.

The high court had issued notice on the application and also directed the metropolitan magistrate concerned to respond to it, observing that this conduct was a clear and direct contempt of the high court's orders.

It had earlier said there was an apprehension of a rise in COVID-19 cases and the infrastructure for hybrid hearings in district courts and other quasi-judicial bodies here must be in place.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)