New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday sought response from all High Courts and Tribunals whether they have suspended the virtual hybrid hearing of the cases, if yes then reasons behind such decisions. A bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and comprising justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was hearing a plea filed by Sarvesh Mathur, who was appearing-in-person. Mathur said Punjab and Haryana High Court is not allowing video conferencing for which the entire infrastructure has been created and it was working during the Covid-19 pandemic, but after that they have completely stopped it. Mathur stressed the High Court has completely disbanded the use of video conferencing facilities.
The bench issued notice to the Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and also issued notices to all Registrar Generals of High Courts, which shall be communicated by the registrar judicial through e mail. “All Registrar Generals intimate to this court, whether hearings in the hybrid mode are being allowed, whether the facility has been disbanded”, said the Chief Justice.
The bench said the Registrar Generals will file an affidavit before the court within two weeks. “Thank you for bringing to our attention, we are issuing notice to all the High Courts….you have given us a platform for doing what we all were thinking for a long time. We have to issue some directions to the High Courts”, the Chief Justice told Mathur.
A counsel, present in the courtroom for another matter, submitted before the court that National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), New Delhi, has come with a notification last week that it is closing online hearing, and all the Tribunals could be issued notice and they all have the infrastructure. “They were doing it during the Covid, now they have shut it down”, said the counsel. The apex court also issued notice to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and sought responses from their Registrars as to whether virtual hearings have been disbanded.
“We also issue notice to NCLT, NCLAT, NGT…Registrar of three Tribunals shall file an affidavit within 10 days of the receipt of the notice on whether hybrid hearings are being continued and if not why they have been disbanded," said the bench. Earlier, a couple of other petitions were filed before the apex court seeking declaration of virtual hearing as a fundamental right.
