Online hearing in SC makes legal system more democratic, must stay: Lawyers from outside Delhi

Supreme Court Virtual Hearing

Lawyers from outside Delhi have opined that the Supreme Court continuing to permit them to appear online through videoconferencing links has made the court more democratic and must not be discontinued.

The Supreme Court started hearings via videoconference in 2020 against the backdrop of the social distancing norms imposed during the pandemic. Though the court was initially hearing only urgent cases, in July 2020, it constituted benches to start hearing cases through videoconferencing.

This system continued till April 2022, at which time the apex court made it compulsory for lawyers to obtain prior permission to appear online on Wednesdays and Thursdays. However, with DY Chandrachud taking over as the Chief Justice of India (CJI) in November 2022, the use of technology in the courtroom has been encouraged, and lawyers can appear online and can even argue an entire case.

The continuation of online hearings has helped lawyers from outside of Delhi appear before the apex court and argue their cases, even if virtually. Earlier, litigating parties would incur huge costs to fly their lawyer to Delhi, but this has largely been negated by online hearing.

CK Nandakumar, a senior advocate at the Karnataka High Court, said, “It certainly makes the Supreme Court accessible. Often, litigants are not able to afford approaching the Supreme Court. When they do, to have to pay for the travel of the counsel they are likely to have interacted with at the high court stage, which becomes prohibitive. Also, the interaction with the counsel in the Supreme Court is often limited. As against this, if an option of VC (videoconference) is made available, it would make access to the legal system more democratic.”

He noted that there are many competent lawyers in different parts of the country who are simply not able to appear in the Supreme Court regularly. He said, “That can easily change and must. So continuing with VC hearings should be encouraged.”

Earlier, there was a big chance of a lawyer missing out on attending a hearing in the Supreme Court if the case was listed lower on the list, as most lawyers traveling to Delhi wish to leave by the evening. With the advent of videoconference hearings, this has largely reduced.

“It gives a lawyer time to think and argue a case at length referring to various documents. It is an advantage to lawyers across India and must continue. However, the tribunals must also be uniform in permitting videoconference hearings for lawyers. Some tribunals do and some don’t, and this creates confusion among lawyers,” said SS Naganand, senior advocate at the Karnataka High Court.

Before the pandemic, a lawyer who does not operate from Delhi would have to put his commitments at the station of operation on hold in order to appear in Supreme Court. The virtual hearings mean that this need not be the case.

Anuj Jhaveri, partner, PSL Advocates and Solicitors at Mumbai, noted that the shift towards utilisation of technology has significantly helped advocates to appear before the apex court, overcoming geographical and economic barriers. He said, “This inclusive representation will bolster the confidence of the young generation of advocates across the country by providing them an equal footing and improve the overall quality of the justice delivery system. Thus, now advocates from Bombay can appear before the Supreme Court without compromising their commitments to other cases."

The Supreme Court is also one of the very few top courts in the world to livestream its proceedings, use technology in filing of cases and train lawyers’ clerks on using the software to electronically file cases.

“The SC (Supreme Court) is at the forefront of embracing technology for the benefit of citizens and VC is an important aspect of it. It allows both lawyers and litigants to attend to their matters from the cities they are from should they choose to do so to save both time and cost,” said Nandini Khaitan, partner at Khaitan and Co at Mumbai.

“The SC’s virtual hearing initiative is a great game changer, which is beneficial to both attorneys and clients. In fact, the impact of such initiatives has already been felt by stakeholders,” said Pradeep Kumar Jain, managing partner of law firm Singhania and Co at Mumbai.