"If Courts Adopt Virtual Court System, It May Lead To A Better Rule Of Law": Former CIC Shailesh Gandhi Writes To Chief Justice Of India

Referring to the recent letter written to Chief Justice of India by a group of over 500 lawyers (seeking resumption of regular physical hearings), the Former CIC has, in his letter, observed that the said letter is in fact a plea against Virtual hearings.

"It is highly appreciable that this Hon'ble Court has opted to go on virtual mode to provide uninterrupted access to justice to the common citizens of this country, however, this virtual functioning of Courts system has more lacunaes than its benefits," wrote a group of over 500 lawyers to the CJI on 09^th January.

The letter by the former CIC states,

"The possibilities and advantages of Virtual hearings have come to light because of the Supreme Court's decision to conduct judicial work by Virtual hearings. However, - partly due to the lack of knowledge and some hiccups, - many courts across the nation conducted their work for only two to three days in a week. Many subordinate courts did not work for a considerable period of time. The result already is a looming disaster before the judicial system."

Underlining the fact that according to the NJDG website, at the close of 2020, the number of pending cases stood at 423 lacs, the letter states that immediate switch to Virtual Courts as the norm with physical hearings when necessary may be able to alleviate this situation.

The letter further demands that directions be given to all courts to function in the virtual mode immediately and that the E-Committee of the Supreme Court has ensured that all courts are equipped for virtual working.

Interestingly, the letter by former CIC has given point-wise reply to the issues raised (6 in number) in the letter by Supreme Court Bar Association.

It may be noted that while seeking resumption of physical hearing, the letter by SCBA has stated that there are many practical issues and problems being faced by members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and their staffs, viz.:

• Network connectivity issues;
• No proper management by the Registry, regarding virtual hearing;
• No response to the calls by the dealing officers in hand mentioning branch;
• Dismissal of mentioning of urgent matters by the mentioning branch without providing any reason for the same;
• More than 50% of young practitioners of this Bar have been constrained to leave Delhi as they were unable to meet out their living expenses;
• Members staying in Delhi NCR, and practicing before this Hon'ble Court have huge effect on their earnings due to which, either they have to depend on their family or on odd jobs.

Significantly, the letter by the Former CIC goes on to argue that if the Courts adopt the Virtual Court system, it may lead to a better rule of law for the nation and a further prayer has been made in the letter to treat it as a suo moto Public Interest litigation to direct all the courts in India to ensure:

1. All Courts to offer the facility of Virtual appearances. In some cases, physical hearings may be held or accepted. It could be left to the litigant and lawyer to decide if they wished to make a physical appearance.
2. All Courts not to ask for any paper petitions and submissions but only take electronic petitions and submissions. This would lead to a saving of about Rs. 6000 crores worth of paper and save over 6000 trees each year.
3. Both these measures must be continued even when the COVID threat does not exist.

Lastly, the letter submits that if the Supreme Court gives these directions to all courts it would transform our judicial system to provide a proper rule of law for our nation.

Notably, the Supreme Court on Tuesday (12^th January) observed that Virtual hearings, though forced by the global pandemic, are "as good as Open Court Hearings".

A Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde clarified that the decision to convene Court proceedings via video conferencing is taken after extensive deliberations with medical experts.

"We have been following this (VC hearing) over one year due to medical reasons…We are reviewing the situation. The decisions are taken on the basis of medical experts," the CJI said while hearing a petition seeking resumption of physical hearings.

In related news, the Gujarat High Court on Wednesday (13th January) issued a circular regarding resumption of physical functioning of Subordinate Courts of Gujarat.

Also, the Punjab & Haryana High Court recently asked the District & Sessions Judges in the State of Punjab, Haryana and U.T. Chandigarh to permit the physical hearing in all categories of cases subject to their own assessment of prevailing local conditions including the intensity of spread of COVID-19 Pandemic.

Further, the Patna High Court had also decided to start functioning in physical mode purely on 'Experimental basis' for 'Two weeks' i.e., from 4.1.2021 till 15.1.2021 while observing the social distancing norms.

It may also be noted that the Registrar General of Madras High Court had, last month, released an Official Memorandum informing that the Administrative Committee of the Madras High Court had resolved that subordinate courts in Tamil Nadu can proceed with physical hearings from Monday (18^th January, 2021).