Have virtual hearings been stopped? Supreme Court issues notice to all High Courts, NCLT, NCLAT, NGT

The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from all High Courts and various tribunals regarding whether they have suspended virtual hybrid hearing of cases and the reasons behind such decisions. (Sarvesh Mathur vs Registrar General Punjab and Haryana High Court).A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said that the top court had long been planning to raise this issue and sought the response of High Courts and tribunals on whether hybrid hearings have been discontinued and the reasons for the same. ."Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We will do something we are thinking for long time to do. We will ask High Courts who have disbanded virtual hearings," the Court said..Accordingly, the Court issued notice to all High Courts in the country. The Court also issued notice to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) and sought responses from their registrars as to whether virtual hearings have been disbanded."We also issue notice to NCLT, NCLAT, NGT where the registrar of these tribunals will reply if hybrid hearings are being continued and if disbanded then why," the Court said.The Court was hearing a plea stating that Punjab and Haryana High Court had completely stopped using video conferencing for hearings..At least three other petitions are already pending before the apex court seeking declaration of virtual hearing as a fundamental right.They have been filed by All India Jurists Association, National Federation of Societies for Fast Justice and advocate Varun Thakur. .Notably, in May this year, the CJI had urged High Courts to continue with virtual hearing, stating that litigants can't be burdened because judges are not tech-savvy.He had implored High Courts to continue using technology enabling hybrid hearings, pointing out that such facilities are not meant for use only during COVID-19 pandemic."In one of my judgments which I was editing last night, I have said we cannot burden our lawyers due to our uneasiness with technology. The answer is simple: retrain ourselves," CJI Chandrachud had said..[Read order]