Access to courts through video conference not a fundamental right: Gujarat High Court to Supreme Court

The Gujarat High Court has opposed the plea before the Supreme Court to make access to virtual hearings a fundamental right, stating that demanding access to courts through video conferencing as a matter of fundamental right is a stretch since it is neither feasible nor viable to continue virtually (All India Association of Jurists v. High Court of Uttarakhand)..The High Court made the statement in response to a plea by a lawyers' body challenging the decision of the Uttarakhand High Court to revert to full physical functioning from August 24, to the exclusion of virtual hearing of cases. The petitioners had also impleaded the Gujarat High Court, which took a similar decision to revert to physical hearings. .The Gujarat High Court in its reply before the Supreme Court, submitted that access to courts through virtual mode "cannot be a matter of right exercised by either the litigants or the advocates.""The shift from physical to virtual hearing was undertaken a time when the Country was weak on its knees due to the Covid crisis prevailing in the entire world. But demanding access to Courts through video conferencing as a matter of fundamental right is a stretch since it is neither feasible nor viable to continue virtually," the reply stated..The High Court has submitted that as far as access is concerned, the streaming of cases from most of its benches on YouTube has been a success."The success of live streaming can be gauged from the fact that official YouTube channel of the Gujarat High Court as on October 25, 2021 has more than 80,000 subscribers and more than approximately 69 lakh views of various videos as part of live streaming," the High Court has submitted. .Substantiating its decision to revert to physical functioning, the High Court submitted that even as the country gets ready to recover from the COVID-19 induced chaos to normalcy, "the Hon'ble High Court of Gujarat has taken careful measures for the benefit of the State vide its Standard Operating Procedures [SOPs] for resumption of physical hearings."Such a decision was taken in view of overwhelming requests by the Bar to shift back to physical mode of hearing, the reply stated. .The petition before the Supreme Court has challenged an August 16 notification issued by the Uttarakhand High Court stating that normal judicial work would resume from August 24, 2021 only through physical mode, and that no request for virtual hearing will be entertained.The plea filed by All India Jurists Association, a body of more than 5,000 lawyers across the country, also sought a declaration that the right to participate in court proceedings through virtual courts is a fundamental right under Article 19(1)(a) and (g) of the Constitution.Among the intervenors in the matter before the apex court are former top cop Julio Ribeiro and former Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.