Hearing through video conferencing "colossal failure", says District Court Bar Association

It said that in case no viable decision with respect to physical working of the Tis Hazari Courts was taken, then the Executive Committee along with members of the Bar in large numbers would like to make the representation in person at the residence of Chief Justice and/or at the Delhi High Court premises.

Hearing of matters through video conferencing has been a "colossal failure" in the district courts, Delhi Bar Association of Tis Hazari District Court Monday said in a letter to the Delhi High Court seeking resumption of physical working of courts. In the letter written to Chief Justice of Delhi High Court D N Patel, the Delhi Bar Association said that conducting of matters through video conferencing (VC) was a good attempt but it has been a colossal failure in the district courts. In the letter, Sanjeev Nasiar, President of Delhi Bar Association, said resumption of physical hearing of matters at Tis Hazari District Court has become an imminent need for the lawyers and requested Chief Justice to take a final decision in the matter by August 17.

It said that VC has been a "complete failure" and the legal system was "slowly but surely crashing" on account of it. "The conducting of hearings through VC has caused lot of confusion and anguish among the lawyers of various regions. Most important aspect to be kept in mind is that large numbers of lawyers do not have smart phones and/or computer systems so as to enable them to conduct hearings through VC, thus they are unable to cause appearances. "The Court facilities do not provide for lawyers in such numbers so as to enable them to conduct hearings through VC. The result is that the lawyers were already suffering on account of lockdown, which has lasted now almost five months are burdened with more expenses so as to try and create infrastructure and/or have at least smart phones and also adequate bandwidth/ internet facility so as to try and conduct hearings through VC," the letter said.

It further said that large number of lawyers were in the danger of losing their entire clientele to a section of lawyers who are financially better off. "Moreover, on account of hearings being conducted through VC even the lawyers who have internet facility and equipment are facing extreme difficulty on account of clashing of matters, crashing of systems and most of the time the lawyers are unable to make proper and effective representation through VC during the course of hearings. Under these circumstances, the lawyers even though are trying their best to conduct hearings through VC however, are feeling highly frustrated there too," it added.

It further said that if Chief Justice felt that more time was required to get over the situation, then there were various ways which are far better than hearings being conducted through VC, such as conducting courts on odd and even basis or fixing court days as days for civil and days for criminal cases. Further, based on nature of cases, the same can be divided into pre-lunch and post-lunch sessions, the letter suggested. It said that in case no viable decision with respect to physical working of the Tis Hazari Courts was taken, then the Executive Committee along with members of the Bar in large numbers would like to make the representation in person at the residence of Chief Justice and/or at the Delhi High Court premises. The letter said members of the Delhi Bar Association would meet Chief Justice on August 19 to highlight the plight of lawyers.

All the six district courts in the national capital have been working in a restricted manner due to COVID-19 pandemic.

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