Supreme Court to resume physical hearing in hybrid manner soon

Chief Justice of India S A Bobde told the bar leaders on Monday that physical hearing in the Supreme Court will soon resume in a hybrid manner amid the COVID19 pandemic the Bar Council of India BCI has saidAmid protest by several advocates demanding resumption of physical hearing in the top court a meeting was held on Monday in which the CJI Solicitor General Tushar Mehta bar leaders including BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra as also office bearers of the Supreme Court Bar Association SCBA as well as Supreme Court AdvocatesonRecord Association and senior advocate Vikas Singh discussed the issueThe apex court is has been hearing cases through videoconferencing since March last year amid the pandemic and several bar bodies and lawyers including former SCBA President Vikas Singh have been demanding that physical hearing should resume immediatelyldquoThe Chief Justice of India made it clear that the judges of Supreme Court themselves are willing to restart the open court hearings but there are medical and technical issues which the registry of Supreme Court of India is trying to sort out and solve Therefore it will be done graduallyrdquo said a press release issued by the BCI ChairmanldquoThe secretary general of the apex court was asked by Justice Bobde to get the technical problems solved at the earliest so that courts could resume its functioning physically from the first week of March 2021rdquo Mishra who is also a senior advocate saidThe release said that after deliberations it was also decided that though there shall be hybrid system of hearing till the pandemic period is over but as proposed by senior advocate Vikas Singh the ldquovideoconferencing during the hybrid hearings could only be done by the lawyers who are present in Delhi and that should be done only through cable connections either in the lawyers chambers or the cubicles to be installed in the premises of Supreme CourtrdquoIt said Mishra requested for evolving an effective and expeditious method for mentioning and listing of urgent matters on which the CJI ldquogave a positive assurancerdquoldquoMost probably one or two judges will sit on all the working days for lsquomentioning mattersrsquo only A decision to this effect shall be taken soon by the Chief Justice of India in consultation with the other judgesrdquo the release saidDuring the day former SCBA President Singh led a group of lawyers who assembled in the apex court premises to protest and seek immediate resumption of physical hearingldquoToday the CJI called us for a meeting in view of our protest call He suggested hybrid mode of hearing for which he said infrastructure will have to be upgraded I on behalf of the members of the bar insisted on full physical hearing as before and that too immediately The CJI did not agree and hence we have decided to continue our protest till our demand is metrdquo Singh saidldquoHybrid could have been an option if implemented today but agreeing to hybrid without restoration of normal functioning was not acceptablerdquo he saidThe Supreme Court AdvocatesonRecord Association SCAORA said that in the meeting it was assured that process for resumption of physical hearings has already began and would be ldquoavailable soon in a hybrid manner that is in both modes of physical hearing and virtual hearing at the earliest after considering the medical advice and clearing the existing impediments regarding to health of the stakeholders technology infrastructures and availability of staff of registryrdquoIn its press release the BCI chairman said that during the meeting all the leaders of the bar were of the view that open court hearings should start in the apex court forthwith as normal functioning in all government offices have resumed and most of the high courts are also having physical courtsldquoBut due to continuation of videoconferencing majority of lawyers of Supreme Court are facing a lot of difficulties Lawyers are in agitating moderdquo it saidMishra said that on the proposal of leaders of SCBA and SCAORA the CJI assured that lawyersrsquo chamber will be allowed to remain open from 9 AM to 7 PM on all seven daysldquoIt was also resolved to evolve the required SoP for the physical and hybrid hearings and for laying down such SoP the secretary general is to coordinate with the leaders of the Supreme Court bar very soon This apart the lawyers were also requested to make their suggestions to the secretary general through email in order to make the procedure easy and practicalrdquo he saidMishra said the CJI has asked him to coordinate with senior advocates of the apex court and other bar associations to make them agreeable for physical court hearingsldquoFrom todayrsquos meeting it is clear that the physical hearings are going to start in the apex court within threefour weeks The Chairman Bar Council of India also made the Chief Justice of India acquainted with the feelings and strong resentment of the bar with regard to the statement of the some of the judges of Supreme Court of India where the judges have talked of continuation of virtual hearings even after the pandemic period is overrdquo the release saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever