Virtual hearings: Holding of court proceedings an administrative matter, says Law minister

New Delhi [India], March 17 (ANI): Holding of court proceedings is an administrative matter and falls strictly under the domain of the judiciary, the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in a written reply at the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
"It is for courts to decide whether court proceedings are to be held physically or online. The e-Committee of the Supreme Court of India, currently headed by CJI, is responsible for the overall planning, policy, and implementation of the e-Courts Project in close coordination with the Department of Justice," he said.
To bring about uniformity and standardisation in the conduct of video conferencing, an overarching order (Suo Motu Writ (Civil) No. 5/2020) was passed by the Supreme Court on April 6, 2020, giving legal sanctity and validity to the court hearings done through video conferencing.
Further, video conferencing rules were framed by a 5-judge committee which was circulated to all the High Courts for adoption after local contextualisation.
"As part of the IEC campaign, several initiatives have been taken to educate the Judicial Officers, lawyers and the public about the facilities available under eCourts Project," read the statement quoting the Law minister.
Training and awareness programmes on the ICT have been conducted by the e-Committee, SCI, covering nearly 5,13,080 stakeholders including judges of states, court staff and advocates.
"An Action Taken Report on the various observations and recommendations of the 103rdinterim report of the Department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee has been furnished to the Rajya Sabha Secretariat on 16.12.2020. The same is under consideration before the Parliamentary Standing Committee," it read.
Virtual hearing of cases helps to have easy access to justice.
"Some of the advantages of virtual hearing: The lawyers and litigants can appear before the court from any location (far-flung areas as well) of their choice. There is a considerable saving of time and money thus helping underprivileged litigants. The lawyers can attend hearings at multiple locations at short notice. Production of witnesses becomes easy as they can be at their own safe locations. The movement of under-trial prisoners can be done very economically and conveniently," the statement read further. (ANI)