CJI DY Chandrachud Says He Has Written To High Court Chief Justices On Hybrid Hearings

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud on Thursday orally remarked that he was taking administrative actions to ensure access to hybrid hearings in various High Courts. The remark came upon a mentioning made by Advocate Siddharth Gupta concerning hybrid hearings.  The counsel made the mentioning before a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala.

Gupta informed the bench that despite the COVID cases being on a rise, many High Courts were not permitting hybrid hearings. Accordingly, he asked for an urgent listing to hear his plea seeking for hybrid hearings to be resumed in all High Courts. To this, CJI DY Chandrachud said–

"I am going to Orissa tomorrow to attend the ICT conference. I will be meeting judges of the ICT committee. There is so much that is not done judicially as is done on the administrative side. I'm seized of the matter. I have written to Chief Justices of High Courts too."

In view of the rise in COVID cases in the country, some High Courts have already shifted to hybrid hearings. For instance, Madras High Court has permitted hybrid mode of hearing both at the Principal bench and the Madurai bench since April 10 2023. Earlier this year, a bench of Supreme Court comprising Justices SK Kaul and Abhay Shreeniwas Oka had verbally expressed that all courts in the country need to have in place a hybrid system for hearing cases.

In February, while hearing petitions seeking hybrid hearings in High Courts, CJI DY Chandrachud had made certain strong remarks, criticising High Court Chief Justices who are shutting down virtual courts option.

"What some of the Chief Justices are doing is, all the money which we have spent, they're just disbanding the technological infrastructure which we have created for virtual hearings. I am very deeply disturbed by some of the High Courts doing this. Irrespective of whether a Chief Justice is technology friendly or not, this is not how you deal with public money. You have to ensure that infrastructure is available", CJI Chandrachud had said, expressing concern about the wastage of public money invested in the e-courts project.

Last week, a bench led by CJI had dealt with a petition filed by lawyers from Punjab and Haryana High Court regarding lack of hybrid hearing option and disposed of the matter requesting the Chief Justice of the High Court to look into the grievances.