The suspension of normal work at the Calcutta High Court and its subordinate courts in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak has put many litigants and lawyers in a quandary as not all are tech-savvy to go for e-filing of cases and hearing through video-conferencing.
High Court Registrar General Rai Chattopadhyay said on Thursday that it is true that litigants from far-off and remote places in West Bengal may not be able to easily adapt to the new system of filing of cases and hearings.
"But at this moment, we have no other way out and this is the most handy tool to ensure that the most urgent matters are taken up for hearing," she told PTI.
Currently, petitions can be filed at chcfiling@gmail.com, she added.
Chattopadhyay said the normal format for filing cases at the registry and court hearings will resume as soon as the situation normalises.
While welcoming the high court administration's decision to go for video-conferencing through Skype for hearing extremely urgent matters during the period, lawyer Rabi Shankar Chatterjee said many lawyers are not well-equipped with the new technology.
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"I have been practising at the high court for 34 years, but I am not well-versed with these new technologies, which the new generation is more adept in," he said.
Though the measures are only for the time being, the high court administration, the Bar Council and the High Court Bar Association may introduce a training programme for those lawyers who are not well-versed with e-filing and hearing of petitions through video-conferencing, Chatterjee said.
"This will not only ensure a speedy disposal of cases, but also reduce crowding in courtrooms," he added.
The registrar general said it will depend on discussions and policy decisions by the judiciary on whether e-filing and hearings through video-conferencing can be developed as a supplementary system after the resumption of normal work.
"At this moment, we have adopted this method only to deal with urgent matters," she said.
The Calcutta High Court had, on March 28, notified that it would hear petitions through video-conferencing via Skype conference call only due to the inconvenience faced by lawyers and litigants in physically attending court proceedings due to the ongoing 21-day lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
The notification also said only extremely urgent matters would be taken up for hearing through video-conferencing.
Advocates would be required to file the petitions through e-mail, it said.
The high court is taking up the hearings of only urgent matters since March 15, following the COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan had, on March 24, ordered that the proceedings of the high court, its circuit benches in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Jalpaiguri and the district courts would remain suspended from March 25 to April 9 owing to the prevailing situation.
The order has now been extended till April 30.