Supreme Court Heard 7144 Cases In 57 Days Via Virtual Hearing During Lockdown

Today alone, over 200 cases were listed before 12 benches of the Apex Court, including the suo motu plea pertaining to the plight of migrant workers in the country, amid the lockdown.

The Supreme Court started hearing cases via video conferencing from March 23 onwards. As of today, a total of 618 benches have heard 6994 cases (including review petitions), in addition to 150 matters that were heard by the Registrar Court, as per the information provided by the Supreme Court.

During this period, the Supreme Court delivered 672 Judgments in 134 main matters and 538 connected matters.

The Court also observed a surge in the participation of lawyers, having shared approximately 25000 Video Links with the Advocates.

During the Lockdown period, the Supreme Court also issued guidelines to ensure that all the courts across the country are made accessible via video conferencing.

In the suo moto case titled In Re: Guidelines For Court Functioning Through Video Conferencing During Covid-19 Pandemic, the Top Court issued a slew of directions in order to streamline the functioning of courts via video conferencing during the COVID-19 lockdown.

The Top Court also took cognizance of the plight of prisoners in overcrowded jails and registered a suo moto case titled In Re : Contagion of COVID-19 Virus in Prisons, directed the States/UTs to constitute a High Level Committee to determine which class of prisoners can be released on parole or an interim bail for such period as may be thought appropriate.