Supreme Court judge and chairperson of its e-committee, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, on Friday said live-streaming of court proceedings was on the brink of becoming a reality.
The judge was speaking at the inauguration of a new website for judgments and e-filing.
Justice Chandrachud used the occasion to clear the air on whether or not virtual courts had actually replaced physical courts.
The judge said the idea behind virtual court system was not to replace physical courts, but, instead, to show the “flexibility” of the Indian judicial system to ensure that access to justice was not denied even during the hardest of times.
Justice Chandrachud emphasised that the judiciary’s shift to virtual courts was primarily to protect the health and lives of judges, lawyers, court staff and litigants.
“The idea is to show the flexibility of the Indian Judicial system. Not for a moment do we want to replace the physical hearing. But we are conscious of the need to protect the public health of our lawyers, litigants who come to our country or across the country,” Justice Chandrachud said in his address.
Speaking about the new e-filing process, Justice Chandrachud said there were videos to train the lawyers.
“We don’t put the burden of obtaining access to justice on citizens and lawyers. We take that burden and responsibility on ourselves. The idea is that every court complex must have infrastructurally provided and duly manned e-seva kendra,” Justice Chandrachud said.
