More than 500 Indian lawyers have written a letter to Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde citing their grievances regarding the current system of virtual hearings and seeking his order to resume regular physical hearings in the Supreme Court.
The letter has been written by three Supreme Court lawyers, and is signed by senior advocates and young practitioners of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA). While they expressed gratitude to the court for adopting the virtual mode to provide citizens uninterrupted access to justice during the COVID-19 pandemic, they also believe it has failed to adequately service the needs of justice.
They listed several issues such as network connectivity, lack of proper management by the court’s registry, dealing officers of the branch being unresponsive to calls, dismissal of urgent matters by the branch without providing any reason, and many members of SCBA not being well-versed with the virtual system. The letter also points out that members of SCBA hail from diverse states and stay in rented premises in Delhi. More than 50 percent of young practitioners have been forced to leave the capital city as they were unable to meet their living expenses.
The lawyers add that other services such as government and private sector offices, malls, theatres, airports, metro services, intercity bus services, and temples, among others, have opened up throughout the country. Delhi has also relaxed the lockdown and is gradually returning to normalcy, with even the registry of the Supreme Court working physically. Finally, high courts such as Calcutta, Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Allahabad, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Bihar and Kerala have also adopted a hybrid model of regular physical hearings along with virtual hearings.
Keeping in mind the concern that many matters of life and liberty remain unheard, including matters of bail, which require immediate attention, the lawyers have requested that the court consider a hybrid model allowing SCBA members to opt for either physical or virtual hearings.
CJI Bobde said earlier this week that virtual hearings, although forced by the pandemic, are “as good as open court hearings,” and that the virtual hearing system has been adopted after extensive consultation with medical experts. He also observed that many high courts that had resumed physical hearings were later shut down due to COVID-19 outbreak among judges and court staff.
