Arjun Ram Meghwal urges High Court Chief Justices to promote use of virtual hearing facilities

Union Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal has urged Chief Justices across High Courts to promote the use of virtual hearing facilities for the conduct of court hearings. .Meghwal informed Senior Advocate and Rajya Sabha Member P Wilson of this development via a letter dated March 6, which was shared by Wilson on his X (formerly Twitter) handle..Last month, Wilson had moved a special mention in the Parliament and called for the introduction of a law to make it mandatory to have virtual hearings in all courts and tribunals of the country, alongside physical hearings. In a March 16 letter, Meghwal has stated that he is in broad agreement with the concerns raised by Wilson. The Minister added that he has already sent a letter to all High Court Chief Justices on the subject. "We agree with the issue you raised. I want to inform you that on February 20, 2024, I addressed a letter to the Chief Justices of all High Courts (a copy of which is enclosed) requesting them to encourage the use of the Video Conferencing infrastructure established under the eCourts Mission Mode Project," Meghwal wrote in his letter..Wilson had earlier highlighted the impact of virtual courts during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the accessibility provided by virtual courts to litigants, irrespective of their geographical or economic constraints. Virtual courts eliminate the need for individuals to bear significant financial burdens to attend physical court sessions, he had pointed out..In the letter sent to Wilson on the issue, Meghwal highlighted that since the commencement of the COVID lockdown, district and subordinate courts have conducted 2,21,05,272 virtual hearings, while High Courts have conducted 83,64,322 hearings (totaling 3.04 crore) through video conferencing until January 31, 2024. During the lockdown period, the Supreme Court of India conducted 6,52,534 hearings from March 23, 2020 to February 3, 2024, the letter added..Meghwal's letter also touched on projects to be launched in future to promote virtual hearings. "Phase III of the Courts Mission Mode Project has been approved by the Union Cabinet with a budgetary allocation of Rs.7210 crore which includes further strengthening of Video Conferencing Infrastructure, for which a budget of Rs.228.48 crore has been allocated," the letter said. .Meghwal added that it is now up to individual High Courts to take proactive steps to expand and institutionalize the conduct of court hearings using video conference facilities, for which the Supreme Court has already issued a standard operation procedure.He went on to note that the Supreme Court has called for increasing the use of video conference facilities for court hearings in an order passed on October 6, 2023 in the case of Sarvesh Mathur vs The Registrar General, High Court of Punjab & Haryana..No judge shall decline request for video conference hearing; publish VC links in causelists: Supreme Court to High Courts.Moreover, on January 3, 2024, the Supreme Court also endorsed a standard operating protocol to specifically address the appearance of government officials before courts through video conferencing. This order was passed in the case of State of Uttar Pradesh v. Association of Retired Supreme Court and High Court Judges at Allahabad.Meghwal noted that in the said order, the top court had stated that government officials should be allowed to appear before courts through video conferencing as a first option, to save time. .Supreme Court lays down rules for summoning government officials; asks courts not to humiliate them