Physical hearing to begin in Supreme Court from next week

A committee of seven Supreme Court judges is learnt to possess recommended holding physical hearings in a minimum of two or three of the 15 benches within the apex court as early as next week with some additional safety measures

The apex court, since Annunciation , has been holding hearings through video conferencing thanks to a nationwide lockdown and even after the restrictions were relaxed, it’s decided to continue with the practice.

In the last week of July, the 7- judge panel headed by senior most judge Justice N V Ramana had apprised the bar leaders of its decision to not open the apex court for physical hearings “for the time being” and had assured to satisfy them again after fortnight to reconsider the difficulty .

Now, Shivaji M Jadhav, President of the Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA), said that the judges committe met Bar leaders on Tuesday and “is seriously considering to start out a minimum of 2-3 physical courts from subsequent week”.

Jadhav said within the meantime, the apex court’s registry would take necessary steps to organize the courts for physical functioning.

Sources said that the judges panel would give its commendations to judge S A Bobde for necessary action.

The panel, evaluating the court’s opening, told leaders of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and therefore the SCAORA that a minimum of three courts may start holding physical hearings on an attempt basis and this may be additionally to the virtual court hearings already in situ , they said.

“I can also add that the physical courts are additionally to virtual courts and other people would have choice to do virtual hearing also . Matters from the ultimate hearing list published before the lockdown would be listed before the physical courts. final judgment would be taken by the judges’ committe during a day or two,” the SCAORA President said.

The judges panel has met leaders like Bar Council Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra, Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave and Shivaji Jadhav on the difficulty of resumption of physical hearings in SC.

Bar leaders are demanding start of the physical hearings as soon as possible, while continuing with virtual court hearings with improved system for limited sorts of matters.