The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has passed a unanimous resolution urging the Chief Justice of India and other companion Judges to cancel the summer vacation for compensating thetime lost due to Court’s restricted functioning during the lockdown imposed to contain the COVID-19 and further urges to improve Existing Video Conference Platformsby Replacing the Vidyo App.
It was Stated that, “all lawyers practicing in the Supreme Court will give up the summer vacation which is scheduled from May 16, 2020 till July 5, 2020, and make themselves available for work during that period, in order to make good the loss of court working days between March 15 and April 30, 2020, or any additional days that may be lost thereafter. Accordingly, the EC resolves to appeal to the Hon’ble the Chief Justice of India and his companion Hon’ble Judges to declare cancellation of Summer Vacation as per existing calendar and instead treat the entire period covered under the same as working of the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the larger interest of the Litigants and interest of Justice and request them to declare the same at the earliest.”
The SCBA further resolves that until normal working of open courts can resume, the temporary video-conferencing facilities be immediately improved by adoption of live-streaming of court proceedings as mandated in SwapnilTripathi VS. Supreme Court of India, (2018) 10 SCC 639, and by replacement of the existing VIDYO conferencing platform by a modern and efficient multi-user platform such as those provided inter alia by other well known companies or the interactive services being used by the Council of Ministers and officials of the Government on a daily basis.
It is only if all contesting lawyers, instructing Advocates in Record, and litigants can have simultaneous access to the video-conferenced proceedings, that the same can become an effective system for conducting full-fledged court proceedings on par with those which our judicial system requires should normally be conducted in open courtrooms.
Read Resolution Here:
