In the wake of the rising Covid cases, the Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Wednesday said that lawyers are free to appear virtually in the court online.
Referring to media reports, Chief Justice Chandrachud said reports show that Covid cases are on the rise and if lawyers want to appear virtually before the court they can and the hybrid mode is also on.
“We saw newspaper reports on rising Covid cases. Lawyers can use hybrid mode. If you choose to appear online, we will hear you,” CJI Chandrachud said on Wednesday morning.
The Supreme Court had switched over to virtual mode of hearing through video conferencing in 2020 and then after a long gap, the top court resumed physical mode of hearing from April 4, 2022, after the number of Covid cases going down considerably in Delhi and across the country.
The top court has been successfully experimenting with the hybrid method – a combination of physical and virtual hearing for quite some time. Now the lawyers, from far flung areas, argue their matters through virtual mode.
The Supreme Court has also started live streaming of the Constitution bench proceedings through the Supreme Court App and YouTube even after the resumption of physical hearing.
As per the figures released by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare as on April 5 23091 Covid cases have been reported in the country, that includes 4435 new cases in the last 24 hours.