After Supreme Court rebuke, Bombay High Court to restart virtual hearing of cases

The Bombay High Court will relaunch hybrid mode of hearing of cases from October 10 and all benches will permit litigants and lawyers to appear virtually if they so desire.

The High Court administration uploaded a notice on the official website on Monday announcing its decision.

The static links to attend the court hearing virtually have been made available on the website for participating or attending hybrid hearings through video conference.

The decision was taken after the Supreme Court on October 6 expressed strong disapproval over judges at the Bombay High Court doing away with video conference (virtual) hearings or hybrid mode hearings.

CJI DY Chandrachud had on that day said that apart from Justice Gautam Patel of the Bombay High Court, few other High Court judges appeared to be using technology.

"Why is it so retrograde on technology? ... apart from Justice Patel no one else is using it," the CJI had said.

He did not hide his distress over the same, something accentuated by the fact that Bombay High Court is his parent High Court.

"Now in Bombay (High Court), you have disbanded the infrastructure and the infrastructure has been disbanded. This is my parent High Court and I am distressed to say that hybrid is done away with ... How many screens have been removed? How many courtrooms have hybrid hearings apart from Justice Gautam Patel?" the CJI had remarked.

As per the notice issued by the High Court on Monday, advocates, parties-in-person, litigants and other concerned persons who are desirous to adopt the virtual mode of hearing may request access to the respective court staff.

The court staff has to permit entry to persons after confirming the identity and relevance to the cases listed before the court, when such case is about to be heard.

Bombay High Court conducted virtual or hybrid hearing of cases during the COVID lockdown period.

However, it switched to physical hearing of cases from February 10, 2022 and has been doing so since then effectively doing away with virtual hearing.

Though judges could allow parties and lawyers to appear virtually, only very judges used to grant such permission to parties prompting rebuke from the top court.

[Read Notice]