Open SC for physical hearing as Covid on decline: SCBA Prez writes to CJI

The newly elected Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) president and senior advocate Vikas Singh Tuesday wrote to the Chief Justice of India, S A Bobde asking him to open the Supreme Court for physical hearing completely as the COVID-19 pandemic is on the decline.

The SCBA president said that hearing in open Court is both the convention and the constitutional requirement in the Supreme Court.

Virtual hearing was only a stop-gap/interim substitute to open hearing only to keep the wheels of justice moving during the pandemic and it cannot by any stretch of imagination be equated to open hearing, the senior lawyer said.

"There is no justification to not open the Supreme Court for physical hearing completely. As far as safety is concerned, it can be ensured that the lawyers continue to wear their masks and maintain as much practicably possible social distance so that we are not compromising the safety of the lawyers.

"Adequate thermal checks can be made at entry point for lawyers and litigants entering the Supreme Court and hand sanitizers can be placed outside each Courtroom. These steps are enough for starting full physical hearing in Supreme Court which is the only way this institution is supposed to function.

"As I had mentioned in my earlier letters, the younger members of my Bar are suffering greatly due to the current virtual system coupled with truncated listings, hence now, in view of the fact that we have practically overcome the pandemic, at least in Delhi, there is no justification to continue with the same system and full physical court hearing ought to resume at the earliest in the larger interest of the Bar, Singh wrote to the CJI.

He said the pandemic in the country has been very much in control in the last 6-8 weeks as the positivity rate in the city has hovered around 0.3 per cent during this time.

"Even the Supreme Court on the judicial side has made observations in certain cases that the pandemic is on the decline and has greatly diminished while passing orders in relation to holding of examinations and refusing to extend bail for persons who were granted bail earlier due to the pandemic," the letter stated.

Highlighting grievances against the video conferencing system, the SCBA president said Covid positivity rate in the country hovered around 0.3 per cent and that in Delhi out of 5,751 hospital beds reserved for Covid patients only 437 are occupied; only one out of 7,392 beds in Covid care centre has a patient and all 307 beds in Covid health centres are unoccupied.

He said that when guidelines issued by government allow 200 guests at marriage parties, where most are expected to be without masks as they eat and drink there, there was no ground for not resuming physical hearing.

This is the third time the senior advocate has written to the CJI to reopen the top court for the physical hearing.

On January 29, he had written to the CJI saying it was almost a near-normal situation in the country and there was no justification why the Supreme Court was still functioning on virtual mode.

In one such letter written on January 14, Singh said that Bar and Bench were the two main pillars on which the system of justice stood, however, the recent turn of events have created a situation whereby the interests of the Bar are being neglected and the Bench is taking unilateral decisions with regard to the functioning of the institution.