Nation

VIRTUAL COURTS – JUSTICE DELIVERY REVOLUTIONISED

The Supreme Court’s decision to set up virtual courts to hear urgent cases during the present corona lockdown comes as a relief to litigants and lawyers who had very limited access to the courts as judicial proceedings had been considerably hampered on account of the lockdown.  The more heartening aspect of this decision is the apex court’s possible decision to make such courts permanent.  These courts will function at the district level too.  

The positive impact that virtual courts will have on the judicial system in India will be so significant that the very nature of justice delivery will be completely altered.  Let us take a closer look at key benefits of virtual courts:

  1. Legal remedy, a right guaranteed under the Constitution, will become more affordable and accessible to everybody because lawyers and litigants need not travel to courts from various places.  Time and money saved will be substantial.  Hearings will be conducted through video conferencing and the parties concerned can appear from their respective locations. 
  2. Judicial proceedings are plagued by adjournments, consequently leading to cases going on for decades. Many a time this delay defeats the very purpose of the litigation itself and the relief granted will mean nothing for the successful party in the case.  Adjournments can be done away with in virtual courts as the parties will go online only to be heard.  For any unavoidable reason if the case cannot be heard through video conferencing, with prior intimation, the session can be fixed for another day within a week or so.  In fit cases the party seeking such postponement can be asked to pay the cost of organizing the video conferencing session that was not held.  In any case, travel and connected costs will not be there.  
  3. The very significant impact will be the huge reduction in use of paper.  All filings will be done online and the parties concerned can access soft copies of pleadings and the records connected to the case.  Authentication of records can be done by the registry where the papers are filed.  Therefore, there will be no issue regarding the veracity of the records filed online.  The practice of digitizing records is being done in a very significant manner even now and enlarging the scope of digitization by conducting proceedings on line will substantially free up huge space across courts in the country that are being used at present for storing old case papers.  
  4. Virtual courts will mean litigants can engage the counsel of their choice to represent them.  Quite often we find that a lawyer who has appeared before the trial court will be unable to appear before the High Court concerned or the Supreme Court because of the prohibitive costs related to travel, accommodation and other expenses which can be quite huge for every hearing.  Virtual courts will do away with this difficulty.  
  5. Most importantly, cases will be decided faster and the present pendency can be done away with very quickly.  More than 3 crore cases are pending in India in various courts, including the High Courts and Supreme Court.  What will be required is adequate number of video conferencing centres.  The National Informatics Centre is running such facilities across the country.  The numbers have to be increased and this will cost a fraction of setting up a court, which will require a presiding officer, court staff and other infrastructure with huge recurrent expenses.  Setting up a video conferencing room with world class facilities will not much.  There can be a minimal charge for this facility which will cover the cost of running it.   

Virtual courts should be the way forward.  Only matters where the litigants need to be in courts can be conducted there.  The High Courts and the Supreme Court being constitutional courts will have more time to focus on matters that have a significant question of law or those that need constitutional interpretation.  Virtual courts can be the best thing to happen to the judiciary and administration of justice in India.   

About the author

C G Kumar is a practicing lawyer from 1996 dealing with civil, criminal, corporate, banking and IPR laws. He currently practices in High Court and District Court and has offices in Chennai and Coimbatore.  Follow him on twitter @worthword. For queries you can get in touch with him through [email protected]

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