Justice Muralidhar seen as the Steve Jobs of the judiciary: Justice V Ramasubramanian

Supreme Court judge, Justice V Ramasubramanian remembered how former Delhi High Court judge Justice S Muralidhar was thought of the Steve Jobs of the Indian judiciary, given his strides towards an e-justice system before anyone else.."Judges across the country, used to think of Justice Muralidhar as Steve Jobs of judiciary as he switched over to paper-less courts long before people like me realised that computers are not just typewriters," said Justice Ramasubramanian.This observation came during the Supreme Court judge's keynote address on the theme ‘Strengthening Doorstep Justice - Augmenting Access to Virtual Courts’ at a symposium organised by the CAN Foundation in partnership with National Law University, Jodhpur and Gujarat National Law University (GNLU)..Justice Ramasubramanian pondered over how despite the fact that e-courts services were conceptualised way back in 2005, and a national e-courts portal was launched in August 2013, what pushed the country's judicial system to go virtual was the COVID-19 pandemic. "Though e-courts launched way back in August 2013, it actually required a pandemic for us to explore the possibility to make courts virtual.".He drew attention to the international impact that the pandemic had on catalysing the change to virtual proceedings across the globe in countries like China, Russia, and the United Kingdom. "India is not alone to have woken up after the pandemic. Many countries, even UN, realised the need to switch from physical to virtual mode. The UK Parliament passed a law which achieved Royal assent. This Act introduced several amendments - use and availability of live links.".Justice Subramaniam opined that switching over to virtual courts was not without any issues. "If we have a look at history, we will know that at some points in time in history, people went to courts. At some points in time in history, the courts came to the people. But today, technology has enabled courts and litigants to remind wherever they are, and without any physical movement of any of the stakeholders, it is possible to administer justice. All of you know that the question whether… the question is how to make courts accessible to people does not have its genesis in the pandemic. This question has always bothered the rulers for centuries," he said."Courts can be operated from anywhere," said Justice Ramasubramanian emphasising on the universal convenience of virtual hearings. He reflected on a personal anecdote of his visit to a crematorium in Hyderabad that livestreams last rites. "While I was in Hyderabad, I saw state-of-art crematorium in Jubilee Hills. It provides live streaming can pay performs last rites. Please do not think I am making a comparison between the two, but I cannot help if your imagination runs riot.".Justice Ramasubramanian ended his address by playing a short clip of a news item in the US where an accused was appearing before the Court through virtual hearings from the same home where the victim was present despite restraining orders..[Watch the Full Session].[Read a live-account]