Don’t insist on physical presence of parties: Madras High Court to Family Courts

The Madras High Court recently directed family courts not to insist on the physical presence of litigants either at the time of filing their petition or during the hearings.

Instead, they should be allowed to appear through virtual mode/ video conference, the High Court underscored.

Justice M Nirmal Kumar said that virtual proceedings provide an opportunity to modernise the system and make it more citizen-friendly. Therefore, family courts should make use of the video conference facilities without insisting on the physical presence of parties, the judge said.

“Virtual proceedings provide an opportunity to modernise the system by making it more affordable and citizen friendly, enabling the aggrieved to access justice from any part of the country in the world. Thus, the Family Court to ensure that such a system of conducting the proceedings through video conferencing is put to usage without insisting the presence of petitioner even from the time of first presentation till the conclusion of proceedings. The Family Court henceforth not to raise technical objections and insist on physical appearance of petitioner/parties at any stage,” the High Court said.

The Court further held that such litigants, who reside in or are employed in foreign countries, should be allowed to file their petitions through power of attorneys and to appear before family courts through video calls from any location and not necessarily from Indian consulates.

The Court further said that Section 530 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS) emphasise holding even criminal trials through electronic mode and therefore, the family courts’ insistence on physical presence will defeat the very purpose of introducing video conferencing facilities in courts.

The High Court passed the order while hearing a batch of revision petitions filed by three estranged couples, all of whom reside outside of India. The family courts hearing all the three cases had either insisted on their physical presence or directed them to appear through video call only from the Indian Consulate.

Senior Counsel V Prakash and advocates V Chethana, M Karthikeyani and Rahul Jagannathan appeared for the petitioners.

Advocate Revathi G Mohan appeared for the respondents.