Supreme Court "World Leader" In Virtual Hearings, Held Over Two Lakh Hearings Online: Law Ministry

The Ministry of Law & Justice informed in Lok Sabha that since Covid lockdown started, the District Courts heard 1,23,19,917 cases while the High Courts heard 61,02,859 cases (totalling 1.84 cr) till 28.02.2022 using Video-Conferencing. It was added that the Supreme Court held 2,18,891 hearings till 14.03.2022 since the beginning of the lockdown period making it the "world leader" in virtual hearings. It was also informed that the decision to follow the virtual mode of court hearing is a matter which falls strictly under the purview of the judiciary and the Central Government has no role to play in this matter. Further, the Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, stated, "24 High Courts have implemented Video Conferencing rules. One video conference equipment each has been provided to all Court Complexes including taluk level courts and additionally funds have been sanctioned for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available. Additional 1500 VC Licenses have been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers.Lack of access to computers, laptops and digital hardware amongst lawyers in rural areas and resultant digital divide is a genuine problem." The aforesaid information was provided by in response to the following questions raised by MP Ganesh Singh: "(a) whether the Government has received any suggestion for continuation of the practice of virtual courts through the video conferencing mode that was started during the lockdown times; (b) if so, whether the present infrastructure is not adequate for functioning of courts through virtual mode, if so, the details thereof; (c) whether nearly 50 percent lawyers particularly in the district courts lack laptops and computer facilities, ifso, the details thereof" It was informed by the Law Minister that to overcome this problem of digital divide, 493 numbers of eSewa Kendras have been set up in High Courts and district courts across the country which give lawyers easy access to eCourt and internet facilities. Moreover, MP Ganesh Singh also asked whether or not the Government has taken note of the complaints made by the people regarding repeated crashing of the system and occurrence of technical errors while logging into the system affecting the smooth running of the proceedings. In this regard, the Law Minister Kiren Rijiju replied, "To resolve technical glitches which arise during VC hearings, NIC has been closely monitoring the complaints. NIC has developed a VC software which is under test phase. MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has also undertaken an exercise to develop indigenous VC software. Regular coordination meetings are held with BSNL to resolve issues regarding connectivity. Also, a portal to lodge complaints regarding connectivity & bandwidth related issues has been developed for monitoring and faster resolution of such complaints." Click Here To Read/Download Unstarred Question and Answer

Supreme Court "World Leader" In Virtual Hearings, Held Over Two Lakh Hearings Online: Law Ministry

ANIRUDH VIJAY

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