The Ministry of Law and Justice has said ever since the Covid-19 lockdown began, district courts heard 35,93,831 cases while the High Court heard 13,74,048 cases (totalling 49.67 lakh cases) till October 28 using video conferencing only.
The Supreme Court had nearly 30,000 hearings during the lockdown period. To bring about uniformity and standardization in the conduct of video conferencing, an overarching order was passed by the Supreme Court on April 6, 2020 which gave legal sanctity and validity to court hearings done through video conferencing.
Further, video conferencing rules were framed by a five-judge committee which was circulated to all High Courts for adoption after local contextualization.
The Law Ministry said video conferencing rules have been adopted by 12 High Courts. An upgraded cloud-based video conferencing infrastructure with latest features and robust security is also being developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).
The Ministry of Law revealed that as part of the AtmaNirbhar App challenge, some Indian-made video conferencing apps have also been shortlisted and undergoing tests for use as video conferencing platforms.
Read Also: Andhra Pradesh HC Chief Justice transferred to Sikkim, Sikkim HC Chief Justice moved to Andhra