"List It": Supreme Court On Plea For Virtual Proceedings

The Supreme Court has agreed to list for hearing a plea seeking to declare the virtual court hearing as a fundamental right.

A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli was told by a lawyer that the plea, which was ordered to be listed on July 25, was not showing up in the list.

“List it before a bench headed by Justice D Y Chancdrachud,” the CJI said on Monday when the lawyer sought urgent listing on the ground that some high courts have stopped hearing cases through hybrid mode which enables lawyers to appear virtually as well.

Some high courts are only hearing cases through physical mode, the lawyer said, adding that the plea was last heard in April this year by a bench headed by Justice (since retired) L Nageswara Rao.

A petition was filed by the lawyers' body, All India Association of Jurists, against the decision of the Uttarakhand High Court to revert to complete physical hearings without a hybrid option.

The plea said the high courts at Uttarakhand, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala were not providing joining links for attending cases through virtual mode.

It said the denial of access to the facility of hearing cases through virtual mode amounted to a denial of Fundamental Rights under Articles 19 (freedom of speech and expression) and 21 (right to life and liberty) of the Constitution.