Paridhi Arya
Published on: April 4, 2022 at 13:50 IST
The Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju had pointed out the benefits provided by the Virtual Hearing as litigants were free to join the hearing from any location which not only saved their time but also the Traveling cost .
In the Rajya Sabha, Union Law Minister gave the list of benefits and facilities that virtual hearing provided to the common public over the period of COVID-19.
He was questioned by Dr Ashok Bajpai, who is a Member of Parliament from BJP Party.
“Virtual hearing of the cases by the High Courts and the Supreme Court has helped the litigants including the under privileged litigants as it helps litigants to appear before the court from any location of their choice thus leading to considerable saving of time and money. It also helped the entire legal ecosystem including vulnerable litigants to have recourse to justice delivery system particularly during the Covid pandemic when congregational mode of court hearing could not be held due to lockdown and social distancing protocols,” replied by Law Minister Kiren Rijiju.
There is another question that is asked from him is whether there is any policy or provision given by the government to continue virtual hearing so the people will now also have such easy access to justice and court.
To which Law Minister replied that this is under the consideration in front of Judiciary.
He showed some numerical data from the period of COVID-19 of Virtual Hearing.
“Since Covid lockdown started, the District courts heard 1,11,40,223 cases while the High Court heard 60,21,688 cases (totalling 1.71 crore) till 31.01.2022 using video conferencing. The Supreme Court held 2,18,891 hearings till 14.03.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period.” He stated.
One video conference equipment each has been provided to all Court Complexes including taluk level courts and additionally funds have been sanctioned for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms.
Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available.
Additional 1500 VC Licenses have been acquired.
VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails.
A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers. He explained in detail.
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