The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked its Registry to arrange a meeting between its seven-judge committee, which is looking into the re-opening of the court, and the newly elected Supreme Court Bar Association office-bearers, in order to resolve differences on the new standard operating procedure (SOP) for hybrid physical hearing of cases.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and R.S. Reddy asked the Secretary General of the apex court to request the judges’ panel to hear the members of the new committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA).
During the hearing, the Bench perused the minutes of the meetings leading to finalisation of the new SOP and told the newly elected SCBA president, senior advocate Vikas Singh, that members of the Bar participated in the deliberation leading to the SOP.
Mr. Singh, however, persisted that there was no consultation on the issue of physical hearing.
He alleged that the new SOP was arbitrary.
He said lawyers and litigants were the sufferers with no physical hearing of cases taking place.
