The Bar Council of India has decided to make certain urgent and important requests from the Centre and State governments. The BCI Chairman will write to the Prime Minister and Chief Justice of India along with other Ministers and officers seeking fulfillment of certain demands.
Bar Council of India has requested the Union and State government to provide basic laptops or Ipads to needy advocates of the Country for purpose of e-filing and virtual court hearings. Free and effective wifi connections in the premises of all the Bar Associations of the Country with advances scanners are also required.
BCI in its meeting has also requested the Supreme Court and High Courts to resume physical hearings in open courts, after considering places where Covid19 cases are lesser and the situation is normal. The e-filing procedure is proving to be very cumbersome and troublesome for the majority of advocates due to lack of infrastructure, know-how, and technical problems.
The e-Committees at High Court levels have been requested to provide expert trainers for each Bar Association of the Country who could train the members of the Bar and make them adept at efiling and virtual hearings. The Supreme Court and High Courts have been requested to provide trainers to train advocates about e-filings for a period of four weeks in every District and Taluka district and for 2 weeks in High Courts.
According to Bar Council of India, while the collection of data is one aspect, the other very important aspect is utilizing such data and putting things into practice which would require a contributory input from the users of such facility of e-filing and virtual hearing.
BCI has, therefore, requested that while every Advocate and their Associations, State Bar Councils, and Bar Council of India are making efforts to deal with the situation which has arisen due to the pandemic, the legal fraternity and poor litigants need vital support and impetus from the governments to achieve the goals.
-India Legal Bureau