E-Paper
Punjab and Haryana high court allows virtual hearings in five courts from October 4
Five benches, including a division bench, would take up cases through hybrid mode — physical and online mode; a request to join the hearing of cases through videoconferencing could be sent through an email to vcphhc70@gmail.com by lawyers and party-in-person
Two weeks after the apex court sought status of virtual or hybrid mode of hearings in high courts, the Punjab and Haryana high court has resumed hearing of cases through videoconferencing from Wednesday.
Five benches, including a division bench, would take up cases through hybrid mode — physical and online mode. A request to join the hearing of cases through videoconferencing could be sent through an email to vcphhc70@gmail.com by lawyers and party-in-person.
Virtual hearings were initiated after the Covid-19 outbreak in March 2020 and at one point of time all 50 odd benches were taking up cases either through virtual or hybrid mode. However, as fear of Covid-19 virus subsided, courts stopped hearings through virtual mode and started taking up the same through physical mode only.
The fresh move comes in the backdrop of the apex court seeking affidavits from the high courts within two weeks. Taking up a plea on September 15, bench of chief justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra had sought a response from registrar general of Punjab and Haryana high court and other high courts and had also sought to know reasons behind stopping virtual hearings.
A petitioner, who appeared in person had specifically complained about Punjab and Haryana high court not allowing videoconferencing for which, he had submitted that the entire infrastructure was created during Covid-19.
