Supreme Court Administration Correcting The Virtual Hearing System, Bids Invited To Select Proper Person: AG KK Venugopal Tells Court

Even as the Supreme Court mulls over the resumption of physical hearings, Attorney General KK Venugopal on Wednesday said that he has written to the Registrar General of the court on the abysmal quality of the virtual hearing system in the court and that consequent to that, bids have come to be invited in this behalf.The AG was to appear before a bench headed by Justice S. K. Kaul when his audience before the court was delayed on account of a technical snag."The AG was just here. Where did he go?", wondered Justice Kaul.A few moments later, the AG re-appeared on the screen to say, "I was muted. The system is miserable""We can join you on this point...that the system is miserable", commented Justice Kaul."Yes, I saw Your Lordships order on this aspect...I have written to the Registrar General. Now they are correcting the whole system. Bids have been invited for selecting the proper person", said the AG.On January 5, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy, while presiding over a matter, noted with exasperation the failing connection of the virtual Court system. "We at the inception must note our exasperation at the inability of the virtual Court system to work satisfactorily in the Supreme Court while there is no such problems in the Delhi High Court next door!", the Order records.The Delhi High Court, which is situated near the Supreme Court, uses the facilities of Cisco Webex to conduct virtual court proceedings and the Supreme Court uses Vidyo application for conducting the proceedings. The Order goes on to state that the even when there is a single person arguing, there is a resonance of voices and it is difficult to understand why the same is taking place."We have been since yesterday trying to cope with the problem of disconnections, resonance of voices, even when there is single person arguing. It is difficult to understand this despite more licences stated to have been taken. The only voice we hear is the resonance of our own voices!"In light of the above, expressing that it has become difficult to conduct proceedings in the virtual courts in an appropriate manner, the Top Court directed the Secretary General to look into the issue.On the other hand, a five-judge bench hearing the challenge to the Maratha quota on Wednesday adjourned the hearing to February 5 to consider whether the matter can be heard physically."We see the gravity of the problem", remarked the Chief Justice of India on Tuesday while considering a petition filed by a group of advocates challenging the decision of the Delhi High Court to resume physical hearing in the High Court and the subordinate courts in Delhi."We see the gravity of the problem. Primarily, we do not interfere with the administrative decisions of the Chief Justices. We will ask you to go back to the High Court and address your grievances there", CJI SA Bobde said.In response, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal submitted that there was a "clear and present danger" involved as lawyers will be exposing themselves to the COVID-19 pandemic. To take away the option of virtual hearings completely, and to state that no adjournments will be granted in physical hearings was unreasonable in the present circumstances, Sibal submitted."We understand", the CJI replied, adding that the matter will be considered today.While some 500 lawyers have written to the CJI for resumption of physical hearings, 4 advocates and a group of women advocates have in two separate petitions challenged the Delhi High Court decision to this effect.

Supreme Court Administration Correcting The Virtual Hearing System, Bids Invited To Select Proper Person: AG KK Venugopal Tells Court

Mehal Jain

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