New Delhi: More than 100 Supreme Court Bar enrolled practising lawyers have filed an intervention application (IA) before the apex court seeking its direction for complete physical hearing on all 5 days of the week. Prominent among them are D. K. Thakur, B. P. Yadav, P. R. Mandal, V. S. Pandey, Kumar Parimal and Neeraj Srivastava.
The case is being heard by the Supreme Court bench, headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao. The petitioners have sought necessary direction for resumption of normal physical hearing as was prevalent prior to March 16, 2020.
The IA also sought that the Supreme Court should issue ad-interim direction for commencement of physical hearing on Monday and Friday (being miscellaneous day) as well as Tuesday.
“The virtual system is bereft of the human touch that physical appearances in courts bring. The general reaction to the idea of substitution of physical courts by virtual ones was best captured by the Supreme Court when it stated,” the IA filed before the Apex Court, said.
“If we allow virtual courts that will be sounding the death knell for physical functioning of courts (in India)”, the IA further said.
The virtual hearing are disadvantageous for both junior as well as senior members of the Bar. They do loose out heavily on the practical observations of watching learned seniors voicing their arguments and court craft skills, the petitioners said.
In addition, the conduct of the court by the Judge would also be an important observation for the junior members of the Bar. All in all, there is no substitute for practical learnings of the profession which is not feasible through video conferencing, the IA said.
