NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court is likely to resume physical hearings in three to four weeks, the Bar Council of India (BCI) said on Monday after its chairman and other bar leaders met CJI S A Bobde and sought normal functioning of the court, disrupted for nearly a year due to the pandemic.
The meeting was held to chalk out modalities and SOPs to begin a system comprising physical and virtual hearings. The BCI apprised the CJI of difficulties faced by advocates in case of virtual hearings through video-conferencing.
The CJI met BCI chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, SC Bar Association leader Kailash Vasdev, leaders of advocates’ on record association and former SCBA president Vikas Singh. “From today’s meeting, it is clear that physical hearings are going to start in the Supreme Court within three to four weeks,” Mishra said in a press release, adding he told the CJI that there could be no substitute to physical hearing.
SC pandemic freeze on physical hearings questioned Former SCBA president cites immense hardship caused to litigants and advocates and the crippling effect on the justice delivery system
Former Supreme Court Bar Association president Vikas Singh on Friday questioned the top court’s “unilateral” decision to continue with virtual proceedings instead of resuming physical hearings despite all other sectors in the country having gradually returned to normal functioning.
In a letter to Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and others, the senior advocate said the pandemic-related freeze on physical hearings since last March had caused immense hardship to litigants and advocates and hamstrung the justice delivery system.