"It is Made Clear That Physical Hearings Will Resume In 3-4 Weeks": Meeting Between CJI & Bar Leaders
On 1st February, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Mr. S.A. Bobde had called for a meeting with the leaders of the Bar on the issue of resumption of physical hearing in the Supreme Court.
The meeting was conducted after the Supreme Court Advocate On Record Association on Sunday, 31st January had written to the Chief Justice calling for resumption of physical hearing in a hybrid manner. What also followed yesterday, were protests from the side of advocates in the Supreme Court premises. Mr. Vikas Singh, Senior Advocate had given a call to agitate for the physical court hearings, hence, advocates were seen with placards. It was thought, after the meeting with the Chief Justice, Mr. Singh would end the agitation but he announced that the agitation shall continue.
According to the press release, all the leaders of the Bar were of the view that the open Court hearings should start, as the normal functioning of all the Government Offices have been resumed, picture hall, restaurants and even the High Courts have resumed physical hearings. The conclusions drawn from the meeting were:
- “The Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and the Judges of the Supreme Court themselves are willing to restart the open court hearings, but the medical and technical issues are being looked at and the registry of Supreme Court is trying to sort out and solve the same. “
- “The Secretary General was asked by the Chief Justice to get the technical problems solved at the earliest so as to make the courts resume functioning physically from the first week of March, 2021.”
- "The hybrid manner of hearing shall be followed till the pandemic is over, and during the hybrid hearing, video conferencing mode could only be done by the lawyers who are present in Delhi and that should be done either in the advocates chambers or the cubicles."
It was Senior Advocate Mr. Vikas Singh who proposed the idea, that for video conferencing mode, only lawyers present in Delhi should be allowed to take it up and the medium should be via cable connections either in their chambers or cubicles.
The press release also pointed out that the senior members of the Bar and the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India agreed upon, no lawyer being allowed to join video conferencing through the internet as it creates a lot of problems.
The press release states that on the proposal of the leaders of the Bar, the Hon’ble Chief Justice assured that lawyers’ chamber will be allowed to open.
“the lawyers’ chamber will be allowed to remain open from 9.00 AM to 7.00PM on all the 7 days”
The Secretary General has been asked to coordinate with the leaders of the Supreme Court Bar soon with regard to laying down SoP (Standard of Procedure) for physical and hybrid hearings.
In order to avoid any confusion, the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India had requested Mr. Manan Kumar Mishra, Chairman, Bar Council of India to coordinate with the Senior Advocates and other Bar associations of the country to make them agreeable for physical hearings. So, as to reach an amicable situation and no controversy be created later on.
The press release makes it clear that the courts are to resume shortly for physical hearing.