The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has filed a petition in the Supreme Court to quash the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) dated March 5, 2021, issued by the Supreme Court registry for a hybrid physical hearing.
The association has submitted that the SOP has been issued by the registry without consultation with the Bar, even though bar is an equal stakeholder in the dispensation of the Justice Delivery System and suggestions by the Bar ought to have been taken into consideration.
“There is a general feeling in the bar that for the last few years, registry has been issuing circulars without taking the bar into confidence even though the circulars issued directly affects the lawyers practicing before this Hon’ble Court,”
-says the plea.
It has been further submitted that in the meeting of the executive committee of the SCBA with the Chief Justice of India on March 1, 2021, regarding the physical/hybrid hearing, it was assured that the needful would be done by the registry expeditiously taking into consideration the suggestions given by the executive committee. However, the SOP has been issued unilaterally by the Registry.
The association has submitted that the president of the SCBA had written a letter dated March 2, 2021, regarding the resumption of physical hearing in the Supreme Court, however, the suggestions given have not been taken into consideration before issuing the SOP dated March 5, 2021, for hybrid physical hearing.
Moreover, even if before the resumption of the full physical hearing, a hybrid hearing was to be introduced as an interim measure, in that case, the hybrid hearing should have been for all days i.e. from Monday to Friday. In the SOP, there is no provision for a hybrid hearing for matters listed on Monday and Friday, i.e. miscellaneous days when primarily fresh matters are listed.
Further for around the last one year, the Supreme Court is working through virtual hearing and there is no provision for oral mentioning in SOP dated March 5, 2021, and as a result, lawyers would still not be able to make oral mentioning which was a practice earlier before Covid-19 pandemic and when the courts were having a physical hearing.
Also Read: National Board for Wildlife: Supreme Court issues notice over plea on non-functioning of Board
The only provision these days to get a matter listed is to send an email to the mentioning registrar, giving the urgency and as a result so many urgent matters are not getting listed.
“Also the present situation is that the registry officials can all enter the High-Security Zone, however, Lawyers entry to the High-Security Zone is kept suspended by SOP dated March 3, 2021, and only entry of Counsels to enter High-Security Zone would be through a daily “Special hearing passes” which will be issued by the Registry,”
-says the plea.
Referring to the recent notification of the Delhi High Court, the association has submitted that even the Delhi High Court and the subordinate courts to Delhi High Court would start holding physical court as per regular timings on daily basis with effect from March 15, 2021. Also, most of the High Courts have also started holding physical courts or are in the process of starting physical courts.
Further, it has been submitted that this last year has affected, especially, younger members of the bar and also there were a lot of problems regarding muting and unmuting of Lawyers in virtual hearing for last one year. So, it is high time when every place has started working with the safety precautions of temperature check at entry points, wearing of masks and maintaining social distancing, that normalcy is restored in the apex court also at the earliest.
The petition has been drawn and filed by advocate Rahul Kaushik and settled by Senior Advocate Vikas Singh, the SCBA president.