Writing to Justice Dr. DY Chandrachud, after waiting for a response from the Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court for over two months, the Madhya Pradesh States Bar Council has has drawn Justice Chandrachud’s attention towards the serious concerns of a large number of advocates having day-to-day hearings before the High Court and has sought for introduction of an effective, efficient, user-friendly, and convenient virtual hearing platform for convening the virtual Court proceedings.
Currently, since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Madhya Pradesh High Court has been carrying out its virtual hearings on the “Jitsi platform”, which is neither user-friendly nor convenient for both, the lawyers as well as litigants.
“As in the case of physical Court, the justice must be accessible’ convenient; in the case of virtual Courts, the softwares and the applications that are being employed for convening virtual Courts must be completely user friendly, which meets all the desired expectations which make the virtual courts efficient, non-interruptive and hassle-free.”
The letter highlights that in the ongoing COVID-I9 proceedings, where 25-30 advocates are appearing, most of the time are not able to comprehend submissions of the counsels, nor the lawyers appearing on the screen are able to fathom the oral observations of the Court. From the last two dates, the hearings had to be suspended due to technical glitches.
“This is nothing less than deliberately trivialising the justice dispensation system, wherein the whole system is continuing on the same application/software despite facing day-to-day regular problems with it, that too on a matter concerning the life and livelihood of the larger number of citizens of the state who are facing the wrath of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
The letter, hence, urged, Justice Chandrachud, who is the chairperson of the E Committee Project, to Iook into the matter and push for the introduction of appropriate steps, which may resolve the problems faced by the Iawyers of the country.
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