High Courts, district courts have conducted a total of 1.92 crore virtual hearings: Law Minister Kiren Rijiju

High Courts and district courts around the country have conducted a total of 1.92 crore virtual hearings since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju revealed in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday..While the High Courts heard 63,76,561 cases, the district courts heard 1,28,76,549 cases through video conferencing. The Supreme Court of India held 2,61,338 hearings till June 13, 2022..These statistics were produced in reply to a parliamentary question raised in the Rajya Sabha regarding establishment of e-Courts and seeking details of video conferencing hearings done by the High Courts and district courts..Among the High Courts, Karnataka leads with 7,80,305 virtual hearings. The High Courts of Madhya Pradesh and Punjab and Haryana are not far behind, having conducted 6,64,649 and 5,81,047 virtual hearings respectively.At the district court level, Delhi leads with 29,96,145 virtual hearings. Courts in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar conducted 28,79,359 and 18,05,852 video hearings respectively..The statistics for most of the High Courts have been calculated till April 30, 2022.However, for seven High Courts - those of Allahabad, Calcutta, Gauhati (bench at Arunachal Pradesh), Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Manipur, the data is reflected up to March 31, 2022.The data for the Himachal Pradesh High Court has been collected till May 1, 2022..Further, live streaming of court cases have started in the High Courts of Gujarat, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Patna and Madhya Pradesh, recorded the reply..The reply came in response to the following questions raised by MP from Uttarakhand, Naresh Bansal.(a) whether establishment of e-courts has helped to increase the disposal of pending cases;(b) if so, the State-wise details thereof; and(c) whether Government has a proposal to increase the number of judges in various courts of the country, if so, the details thereof?.In August last year, the E-Committee of the Supreme Court of India released a newsletter stating that the 25 High Courts dealt with 48,60,500 cases and district courts handled 89,57,395 cases via video conferencing from March 2020 to August 2020..[Read Reply]