NEW DELHI, Apr 15: In the wake of the COVID-19 nationwide lockdown being extended, the Supreme Court on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP) to be adopted by advocates and litigants during hearing of matters of “extreme urgency”.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced the extension of the three-week nationwide lockdown for another 19 days till May 3 to battle the coronavirus pandemic.
To prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus, the top court since March 23, has restricted its functioning and only matters considered to be extremely urgent are being taken up by different benches through video conferencing.
The fresh circular said Chief Justice of India S A Bobde will be constituting the benches during the period of the lockdown for hearing of matters considered extremely urgent in nature.
The fresh circular is in supersession of the previous circulars of March 23 and March 26, reiterating and elaborating the SOPs for e-filing of petitions, mentioning of cases and hearing of urgent matters through video conferencing.
The circular said for all matters involving extreme urgency the advocate on record (AOR) or party-in-person is required to first file the petition or an application, preferably, through the e-filing mode.
Then, another application containing a synopsis of the extreme urgency needs to be filed, it said.
The circular said in the mentioning-application, “the AOR and party-in-person must specify as to whether he would link to the bench by video-conferencing through own desktop/laptop/mobile phone or would prefer to appear at the video-conference facility on the Supreme Court premises”.
Desktops, laptops and tablet computers provide stable connection for video-conferencing, whereas a signal drop or an incoming call on a mobile phone can de-link such devices from an ongoing video session, according to the circular.
It said in a case, where a senior advocate or arguing counsel is to appear for a hearing, the AOR is required to additionally indicate the contact details of the senior lawyer in the mentioning application.
The top court also provided an option for litigants to view the proceedings. For this, the AOR has to indicate the litigant’s contact details in the mentioning-application so that a video link can be provided, the circular said.
“It may be noted that a maximum of two appearance links will be provided per party, together with one viewing link that may be provided for the litigant separately; hence, it is expected that request(s) of such links, if any, should be clearly made in the mentioning-application to enable the Registry to provide the links in time at each point, at the time of the hearing,” it said.
Besides highlighting the several modalities to be adopted by lawyers and litigants during hearings, the Supreme Court also issued instructions for joining the hearings through its web-based video-conferencing system ‘VIDYO’.
It said the invitation link for appearance and viewing will be sent by the apex court registry to mobile phone numbers, e-mail ids and WhatsApp around half-an-hour before the hearing begins.
The court cautioned lawyers and litigants against sharing or forwarding of links to any other device, or allowing others to join the hearing through video-conference.
The video link sent to any device is required to be unique, it said.
The top court on March 23 had issued a circular by which it had resorted to almost a lockdown-like situation to contain the spread of the coronavirus and suspended the entry of advocates and other staff into its campus on the basis of their proximity cards till further orders.
It had earlier without specifying any date said that only one or two courts will sit to take up extremely urgent matters through video conferencing through an app, which will be installed in desktops, laptops or mobile phones.
The top court had also directed that the lawyers’ chamber and offices in the apex court premises will be closed, and advised that advocates should not attend office as no sanitation staffs will be allowed inside. (PTI)
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