CJI NV Ramana expressed dismay at the advocates appearing for the virtual hearing through mobile phones today.
When CJI Ramana appeared in the hearing to be chaired by him, he could neither hear nor see the Advocates, due to which he was very disappointed.
Chief justice of India CJI Ramana said – “Advocates are appearing from their phones and are not visible. We may have to ban this mobile business… Mr. Advocate, you are now practicing in the Supreme Court and Can offer regularly. So can’t you buy a desktop for the convenience of arguing?”
The Supreme Court bench pointed out that they had to adjourn 10 cases as the Judges were unable to hear or see the Advocates appearing through mobile phones. Justice Hima Kohli, present on the same bench, said that the Judges can’t hear cases in this way.
As we know that the number of Omicron cases of Covid 19 is increasing day by day, therefore the Supreme Court had decided to conduct all hearings through virtual mode for two weeks from 3rd January 2021 for hearing.
The court had decided to hear all matters in virtual mode from January 7 with benches sitting in residential offices and only urgent matters from January 10.
The Supreme Court has also issued a notice for proceedings through video call which is as follows –
- All Advocate and Party-In-Person are requested to join the CISCO WEBEX application for joining the Court Hearings through Video Conference (VC) via desktop/ laptop with Internet Connectivity, preferably wired to avoid any disruption the Court proceeding and inconvenience to the Hon’ble judge.
- Please avoid joining the VC hearing through a mobile phone.
- Please also join through single device i.e., laptop/ Desktop.
- All advocate Part -In-Person must also join the VC hearings preferably using a headset enabled microphone and audio system.
- Please also close all background applications running on your devices for best VC experience.
