Virtual hearings helped underprivileged litigants, saved their time and money: Union Law Ministry

Pointing out how virtual hearings enabled litigants to appear before courts from any location and thus helped them save time and money, the Union Law Ministry on Thursday underscored how the same has helped the underprivileged. .Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju listed in the Rajya Sabha the benefits and facilities made possible by virtual hearing of court proceedings in the country over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Rijiju was replying to a question by BJP Member of Parliament Dr Ashok Bajpai. "Virtual hearing of the cases by the High Courts and the Supreme Court has helped the litigants including the under privileged litigants as it helps litigants to appear before the court from any location of their choice thus leading to considerable saving of time and money. It also helped the entire legal ecosystem including vulnerable litigants to have recourse to justice delivery system particularly during the Covid pandemic when congregational mode of court hearing could not be held due to lockdown and social distancing protocols," the reply reads. On whether there is any government policy or push to continue with virtual hearings for 'easy access to justice', the reply clarified that the decision to do so would be under the purview of the judiciary..The reply also shared some data on virtual hearings since the onset of the pandemic."Since Covid lockdown started, the District courts heard 1,11,40,223 cases while the High Court heard 60,21,688 cases (totalling 1.71 crore) till 31.01.2022 using video conferencing. The Supreme Court held 2,18,891 hearings till 14.03.2022 since the beginning of lockdown period."It also gave details about the number of court complexes, rooms etc that have been equipped to conduct virtual hearing of proceedings, as also the funds sanctioned in this regard. "One video conference equipment each has been provided to all Court Complexes including taluk level courts and additionally funds have been sanctioned for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins have been made available. Additional 1500 VC Licenses have been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails. A sum of Rs. 7.60 crore has been released for procurement of 1732 Document Visualizers.".[Read reply]