Supreme Court planning to resume physical hearing by first week of March: BCI press release

The Supreme Court plans to resume physical hearing of cases in a limited manner by the first week of March, a press release issued by the Bar Council of India (BCI) said..The press release gave the particulars of the meeting which was convened today, between the leaders of the Bar and the Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde to discuss resumption of physical hearing in the Supreme Court.."From today's meeting, it is clear that the physical hearings are going to start start in Apex Court within 3-4 weeks," the release said..During the meeting, CJI Bobde made it clear that the judges of the Supreme Court are willing to restart physical hearings. However, the Registry is still trying to fix and resolve various medical/technical issues. ."Secretary General was asked by Justice Bobde to get the technical problems solved at the earliest so that the Courts could resume its functioning physically from the first week of March, 2021," the BCI said in its press statement. .The physical hearing will, however, be in a limited manner and a hybrid method of physical and virual hearing will be followed. However, the press release interestingly said that Senior Counsel Vikas Singh suggested that for virtual hearing, only lawyers present in Delhi should be allowed and the same be done through "cable connections either in lawyers chambers or in cubicles (to be installed in the premises of the Supreme Court)." ."No lawyer should be allowed to join video conference through internet as it creates a lot of problems and results in strong resentment among members of the Supreme Court bar," it stated..Then CJI has agreed to the proposal, the press release said. .It was further decided that the Standard Operating Procedure, envisaging the guidelines for physical as well as hybrid hearing will have to be framed by the Secretary-General, in coordination of the leaders of the Bar..CJI Bobde was apprised of the fact that various lawyers are facing difficulties due to the continuation of the ongoing video conference hearings. .Further, the BCI Chairperson Manan Kumar Mishra also informed the CJI about the resentment among members of the Bar with regard to the statements of some of the judges of Supreme Court who have talked of continuing virtual hearings even after pandemic. ."Mr Mishra made it clear that such concept is not at all accepted to the Indian Bar and in any event, the "video conferencing mode", cannot replace the Open Court Hearings during the normal days," the release said. .[Read Press Release]