Supreme Court permits virtual hearing on physical days in cases in which lawyers exceed courtroom capacity

If the number of lawyers who are to appear in any case on physical hearing days exceeds the court room capacity, such case can be heard through video conference or hybrid mode, the Supreme Court has clarified. .The decision to adopt virtual or hybrid mode will be taken by the concerned Bench hearing the case. Besides lawyers strength, the Bench can resort to video conference hearing for any other reason too.In this regard, the Court amended clause 5 of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by it on October 7. The amended clause 5 reads as follows: “If Hon’ble Bench is of the view that in a particular matter listed on non-miscellaneous days, the number of Counsel is more than the working capacity of the Court-room, as per Covid-19 norms, or for any other reason the hearing of a matter be held through video/tele-conferencing/hybrid mode, the Registry will facilitate hearing of such matters through video/tele-conferencing/hybrid mode.” The apex court is currently sitting physically only on Wednesdays and Thursday, that is non-miscellaneous days.This arrangement started from October 20 pursuant to the decision taken by the top court on October 7 that all cases listed on Wednesdays and Thursdays (non-miscellaneous days) will compulsorily require the physical presence of lawyers and will be heard only in court rooms. A Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) was also issued to that effect on October 7.The SOP stated that in a matter listed for hearing through physical mode, one advocate-on-record (AOR) or his nominee, one arguing counsel and one junior counsel per party will be allowed entry into the court-room. One registered Clerk per party, as may be chosen by the AOR, shall be allowed to carry paper books/journals etc. up to the court-rooms.However, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal made a mention on October 20 with regard to the restrictions placed by the October 7 SOP on the number of lawyers allowed inside court rooms for physical hearing."I am sorry to mention this...but we wanted to talk about the decision of the Court regarding physical hearing. It is impossible to have only one lawyer inside the courtroom when volumes of cases and files are so much," Sibal had said.The Chief Justice of India (CJI) then said that he will discuss this issue with his brother and sister judges and take a call.Subsequently, a bunch of senior lawyers met the CJI expressing concern about physical hearing in cases which involves a large number of counsel, prompting Supreme Court to make changes to the SOP..Apart from the amendment to clause 5, all other clauses of the SOP will remain unchanged. .[Read Notice]