Delhi Pollution: SC to consider allowing lawyers to appear virtually

The Chief Justice of India today expressed his inclination to allow lawyers to appear virtually amid the worsening condition of air quality in the Delhi NCR region.

As the bench comprising CJI Surya Kant and Justice Bagchi took up the matters pertaining to the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, Senior Advocate Rakesh Dwivedi sought the court's permission to appear virtually due to congestion.

CJI asked the senior counsel if his issue was due to the pollution to which Dwivedi said yes.

Sharing his own experience, the CJI said, "The only exercise that I do is go for a walk outside, yesterday I went in the evening and till today morning I was not feeling good.."

Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, who was also present in court said, "At this age we cannot come out..We should be allowed to appear virtually..the previous CJI we had requested..". To this the CJI said, "If the bar feels that we should hear virtually, and there is consensus, we can take a decision..".

Few weeks back, Justice PS Narasimha of the Supreme Court of India had also expressed his concern over lawyers appearing before court amid the worsening condition of the air quality in Delhi NCR region. "Pollution levels have reached a very serious stage, wearing masks is not enough", Justice Narasimha had told Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal appearing before his bench in a matter.

The bench had further observed that pollution was such that it could cause permanent damage. "Why are you all here? We have a facility for virtual hearings, please use it. This pollution can cause permanent damage," Justice PS Narasimha said sternly. “Even masks are not sufficient. We will discuss this issue with the Chief Justice as well," the bench had added.

Former CJI BR Gavai had recently directed that the pollution case shall be taken up on a monthly basis by the Supreme Court where action taken reports shall be submitted before it by the government authorities.

Recently, the Supreme Court had also called for a report from Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) and the Central Pollution Control Board on the steps taken to prevent the pollution from worsening further. Senior Advocate Aparajita Singh had informed the bench that newspapers had reported that many monitoring stations are non-functional. "If the monitoring stations are not even functioning, we don't even know when to implement GRAP, that is the severe situation milords", Singh added. ASG Aishwarya Bhatti told the bench that the requisite reports would be filed.