Apex court to open doors for physical hearings after a year

Apex court to open doors for physical hearings after a year

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:02.02.2021

The Supreme Court is likely to resume physical hearings in three to four weeks, the Bar Council of India (BCI) said on Monday after its chairman and other bar leaders met CJI S A Bobde and sought normal functioning of the court, disrupted for nearly a year because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The CJI met BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, SC Bar Association leader Kailash Vasdev, leaders of advocates' on record association and former SCBA president Vikas Singh to chalk out the modalities and standard operating procedures to begin a hybrid system of working, with both physical and virtual hearings.

"From today's meeting, it is clear that physical hearings are going to start in the Supreme Court within three to four weeks," Mishra said in a press release. Mishra said he conveyed to the CJI that virtual hearings through video-conferencing mode was unacceptable to advocates and there could be no substitute to physical hearings in courts.

The SG had suggested easing the difficulties faced by advocates in getting petitions listed for hearing by assigning mentioning work to one or two judges. This was supported by the BCI chairperson. The CJI said he would consult other judges on this.

On resumption of physical hearings, the CJI said that he would consult medical experts, assess infrastructure and availability of staff before taking a decision on full-scale resumption of physical hearings.