SCAORA Writes To Supreme Court Registrar Urging To Withdraw Circular Against Sharing Of Video Conferencing Links With Other Advocates

The Association has also urged the Apex Court of the country to make its proceedings more accessible by generating an additional link to enable access to the AOR/ Advocates, to view the proceedings of the court hearing through video conferencing of all courts.

The development comes days after the Supreme Court cautioned Advocate on Record and parties in person against unauthorised sharing of Video Conferencing link/ screen without permission of the Court.

SC Cautions AoRs, Parties In Person, Against Sharing Of Video Conferencing Links Without Permission Of Court

In a letter addressed to the Secretary General of the Supreme Court, the Association said,

"We wish to bring to your kind notice that the hearings through video conferencing (virtual court) proceedings are being conducted in place of physical courts of congregation. However, the facilities for oral mentioning in the courts, opportunity to all the AOR/Advocates to view the court proceedings/ junior Advocates to view the court proceedings in court to enrich their knowledge and experience etc., have still not been made available even after a span of eight months of the functioning of hearing through video conferencing (virtual court)."

It further informed that there are catena of incidents wherein the audio and video of the concerned Advocates On Record/Advocates are not unmuted during the proceedings, as the control of the video and audio is always with the controller of the particular court hall.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had said that it was noticed that the Advocates-on-Records are sharing the links, provided to them for video conferencing, with more than two advocates to appear before the Court during the course of proceeding, violating the standard operating procedure. Such unauthorised sharing creates hindrance in the proceedings of the Court, a Circular dated November 6 read.

The SCAORA has urged the Supreme Court to withdraw this circular and issue an SoP for benefit of Advocates.