Bombay high court conducts first public hearing through video conferencing, litigants and lawyers laud move
Mumbai(hindustantimes): The first ever public hearing of cases through video conferencing was conducted by the Bombay high court (HC) on Thursday. The hearing was conducted through Zoom public meeting app which allows the participation of upto 500 persons at a time. The hearing was attended by people from all walks of life, including lawyers, petitioners, litigants, students and members of the state legal department, apart from the HC staff and general public. The two-hour hearing was well received by all participants.
Justice Gautam Patel, who hosted the meeting, had announced on Wednesday through a press release that he would conduct live-streaming of the court proceedings on a trial basis to make hearing of listed cases publicly accessible.
In all, nine listed cases and one urgent matter were heard during open-for-public videoconferencing held through the Zoom app between 12 noon and 2pm on Thursday.
After the hearing concluded, Patel sought feedback and suggestions from the participants on the virtual courtroom experiment. Advocate Nitin Pradhan, who appeared for a public interest litigation (PIL), said that the exercise was helpful and necessary in the current lockdown and was the need of the hour to decongest courts. Advocate Mathews Nedumpara, who has been advocating video recording and live relay of court proceedings, participated from Cochin and said that it was a step in the right direction and lauded justice Patel’s experiment.
A student who also attended said that the experience was surreal and appreciated the opportunity to be part of the hearing.
Following the success of the experiment, justice Patel issued a press release stating that until his assignment up to April 14, he would continue live-streaming the case hearings before him. The next virtual courtroom hearing will be held on Saturday, April 11 from 12 noon.