Amid the 21-day lockdown to arrest the spread of Coronavirus, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which adjudicates service related matters of central government employees, is facing difficulties in holding hearings during the lockdown due to lack of infrastructure for video conferencing, according to an official communique.

With the imposition of the lockdown on March 25, it became impossible for the tribunal’s benches to function as neither advocates nor CAT employees were in a position to attend work, the CAT official statement said.

The Ministry Of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions said in the statement issued on Saturday, “The option to conduct hearings through video conference was not available firstly because the necessary equipment was not in place and secondly, it was not possible to procure it in view of the lockdown.”

“It has always been the endeavour of the principal bench of the CAT and its benches across the country to dispose of as many cases as possible and to function to the satisfaction of the persons who approach the tribunal for remedies”, it said.

As a matter of fact, the disposal rate even up to the month of February had been phenomenal, the statement said.

“With the outbreak of the coronavirus, the sittings were arranged adhering to social distancing norms”, it said.

However, even that became impossible in view of the steps taken by the government from March 22 onwards, the statement said.

The principal bench in fact was scheduled to be on a mini vacation from April 2 to April 12, it said.

The CAT will decide the further course of action depending on what the Centre would decide regarding the  lockdown from April 15 onwards. Even if there exists the slightest possibility to conduct the courts, the same would be availed, the statement added.

Earlier, on March 23, the Supreme Court had said  that  there will be no more in-person hearings till further orders. For the first time, the Supreme Court said it would conduct video conferencing to hear urgent matters.

The court is “working out a system so that lawyers can argue cases from home,” CJI SA Bobde had said.

“Soon links will be given to lawyers and they can sit wherever and argue the cases. We will soon announce how to download the links for adding video to call,” the CJI said and added, “Videoconferencing can be done by lawyers sitting in their own offices.”

India’s total number of Coronavirus cases has risen to 7447 with 239 fatalities. The country’s marked its sharpest rise with 40 deaths and 1035 new cases of infection in the last 24 hours.