All India Jurist Association Files Plea Before Supreme Court Seeking Complete Resumption of Physical Hearing
(Judicial Quest News Network)
Several practicing lawyers, who are the members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) filed an Intervention application seeking resumption of complete physical hearing that was prevailing prior to March 16,2020.
Earlier All India Jurist Association had filed a writ petition in SC bearing no 941/2021 seeking to declare virtual court hearing as a fundamental right.
The IA says that traditionally, the administration of justice requires hearing the cases and complaints of the litigants through their legal representatives/advocates and by the judges in open courts these courts refer to proceedings conducted before a court of law in full public view.
The IA while pointing out the disadvantages of virtual courts also percolate to the junior members and the very senior members of the Bar.
They do loose out heavily on Practical observations of watching learned seniors voicing their arguments and court crafts skills.
In addition, the conduct of the Judge would also be an important observation for the junior members.
It has also been submitted in the Application that Section 153 B of CPC, 1908 and Section 327 of CrPC, 1973 which require trial of all civil and criminal cases in open court, the application have started that although the Top Court is determined to revert back to normal court hearing but “motivated petitions” are being filed to scuffle such attempts.
It has further been pointed out that the virtual system of hearing did provide an ephemeral effective alternative to the Justice delivery systemin India during the pandemic, it would need serious structural changes to effectuate its continuity in India.
The virtual system is bereft of the human touch that physical appearances in court bring. The general reaction to the idea of substitution of physical courts by virtual ones was best captured by the Supreme Court when it stated. “If we allow virtual courts that will be sounding the death knell for physical functioning of courts (in India)
The IA has also mentioned that in the era of Pegasus row where allegedly govt.is sponsoring snooping and surveillance it is highly precarious to trust this mode and perpetuate. Moreover, there are also evident issues related to cyber-security, data privacy and confidentiality.
The Application was mentioned by Advocate on Record Smarhar Singh
Before the bench of Justices LN Rao, BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna.
The bench agreed to hear the same on December 6,2021.
