Former SCBA president seeks SC resume normal functioning

Senior advocate and former SCBA president Vikas Singh has requested Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde that the Supreme Court, which has been hearing cases virtually in view of COVID-19 for past several months, resume ''normal functioning'' at the earliest.

“Recent turn of events have created a situation whereby the interests of the Bar are being neglected and the Bench is taking unilateral decisions with regard to the functioning of the institution,” he said.

Bar and Bench are the two main pillars on which the system of justice stood, the former Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president said in a letter to the CJI on Thursday.

Singh said: “In my view when the entire country is opening up, of course with sufficient safeguards, I see no reason why the Supreme Court which is the foundation of our democratic polity should not resume full normal functioning by putting in place sufficient safeguards for the said opening.

“While the judges and the court staff are completely protected being away from the areas where the lawyers, litigants and media come, till date no effort has been made to even think of a method whereby the number of people entering the Court is restricted and normal functioning of courts starts on that basis”.

He added that the largest stakeholders in the functioning of the Supreme Court were the litigants for whose benefit this entire institution had been created and while the issue of the pandemic was looming large in this country, the litigants could not be ignored by the non-functioning of the SC in a proper manner.

While pointing out the band-width issues for allowing mentioning, he also said that any technological shortcoming could not be an impediment in this vital activity.

Singh further said: “Young lawyers of this court are the worst sufferers as many of them have taken to alternative professions or even re-located to their home towns to survive in this pandemic as being without work for so long has been traumatic for them.“ “I would therefore request you to take all necessary safety measures at the earliest for re-opening of the Supreme Court and ensure that the justice delivery comes back to almost the same level as it was prior to the outbreak of the pandemic”.

On Wednesday, several lawyers wrote to the CJI seeking to resume regular physical hearing in the courts, saying that the virtual hearing system has failed to adequately serve as the affective justice delivery system.

They said they were suffering for about last ten months amidst this pandemic.

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