As the Covid-19 pandemic hits every aspect of life, the justice delivery system is no exception. Last week, Scroll.in reported that there...
As the Covid-19 pandemic hits every aspect of life, the justice delivery system is no exception. Last week, Scroll.in reported that there has been a 50% drop in the number of cases disposed of by the High Courts in 2020 and a 70% drop in disposal rates in district and taluka courts compared to 2019.
After a nationwide lockdown was imposed on March 25, the Supreme Court decided to move to virtual hearings. High Courts and subordinate courts followed the apex court. Across the country, courts at all levels confined themselves to urgent and important matters, which has been reflected in the poor disposal rates.
However, with no end in sight to the pandemic, many litigants are demanding that physical hearings be resumed. But lawyers and court officials are divided about this.
The divisions came out starkly in the Supreme Court last week. In late August, the Supreme Court proposed to restart physical hearings on an experimental basis, with a limited number of cases. For this purpose, a list of 1,000 cases were drawn up and consent was sought from the lawyers to appear physically.
It turned out that hardly a handful of these matters, less than 1%, received consent from the lawyers for physical appearances.
This was in...
