Bengaluru Known As 'Silicon Valley Of India'; Best VC Systems Should Be Possible For Courts : Karnataka HC

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj said "The City of Bengaluru is known as the Silicon valley of India and therefore the best possible VC system should be provided for the benefit of all courts across the state. We are sure that the state will immediately consider the proposal submitted by HC administration so that endeavor can be made to provide the best VC hearing infrastructure in the country to the courts in Karnataka."

The direction was given during the hearing of a suo-motu petition initiated by the court to to address various legal and technical issues that would arise before the district and trial courts during the period of Covid-19 and lockdown's.

The court in its order said "A report was called for from the Registrar General in which it is mentioned that a decision to install the Hybrid VC system in all district and trial courts has been taken by the High court. He has also noted that the jitsi app requires little more bandwidth than other apps like zoom. Therefore a suggestion has been incorporated to work on the jitsi application that it is necessary for the courts to subscribe to a licensed version of the Zoom app which is being used by HC."

It also noted "There is a need to provide a proper hybrid VC hearing system in all district and trial courts in the state. Due to the first and second wave of covid-19 there have been interruptions in the functioning of courts and in fact lockdown has led to contributing arrears. There are deliberations going on the possible third wave of covid-19, therefore as observed in earlier order, the entire judicial system has to be in a state of preparedness to face the third wave of covid-19."

It added "Therefore, it cannot be disputed that all the courts in the state including district and trial courts should have a proper hybrid VC hearing system in place. Apart from that all courts should have a licensed version of the zoom app which is used in HC."

The court also suggested that the committee can lay down priority in setting up hybrid systems in courts. The court observed, "For providing a hybrid VC hearing system and licensed version of the zoom app, priorities will have to be fixed. During the course of the hearing it transpired that priority would have to be given to all courts of all Principal Judges, all sessions courts and all courts of civil judges taking up criminal matters. Similarly priority will have to be given to all the family courts in the state and commercial courts established in the entire state and dedicated commercial courts established in Bengaluru."

The court has directed the Registry to place on record the proposal submitted by the High Court administration so that appropriate directions can be issued in this petition.