Technical glitches in virtual hearing annoy Attorney General

KK Venugopal, the Attorney General of India, has expressed his displeasure over frequent technical glitches during virtual hearings in Supreme Court. Judges agreed with AG saying that situation has been worsening day-by-day. The court is using Vidyo platform to conduct hearings and despite various helplines and redressal mechanism provided by the court, the hearings are not going smooth.

New Delhi:Attorney General of India, KK Venugopal, expressed his displeasure over frequent technical glitches during virtual hearings in Supreme Court and said that he will write a letter to the Registrar General so that he looks into it. AG was appearing before Justice L Nageswara Rao wherein he was muted during one of the cases even when he had requested to unmute him. Later on, in another hearing, he was unmuted and expressed his displeasure to the judges.

Judges agreed with AG saying that situation has been worsening day-by-day, lawyers can be heard but not seen, or sometimes the video is blurred. Other lawyers also complained about it and said that the screen goes blank.

Yesterday a bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was also annoyed by the technical glitches during a hearing and had directed the Secretary General to look into it. It had also observed that Delhi High Court which is near the Supreme court is not facing any difficulty but the top court is facing.

SC has been hearing cases virtually since the imposition of first lockdown and the technical glitches have continued happening since then. The hearings sometimes have unclear or disturbed sound, videos are blurred or disappear, judges get muted etc.

The court is using Vidyo platform to conduct hearings and despite various helplines and redressal mechanism provided by the court, the hearings are not going smooth. Many a time the court has expressed its dissatisfaction with the virtual hearing.