Physical hearing on larger scale may start after Deepawali - CJI N.V. Ramana.

    The Supreme  Court of India has resumed the mandatory physical hearing from today i.e. on 21.10.2021, on limited scale since last year from the time of total lockdown due to coronavirus pandemic.

The physical functioning in the Supreme Court brought back the pre-lockdown era to some extent, on limited scale with some standard operating procedure. There seem to be normalcy in the functioning unlike  the last 16 months functioning. This is believed to have brought some relief for the advocates as well as the litigants where justice can be prevailed. The last 16 months were the toughest months young budding and senior advocates  to deal with financial instability.

Even though the function of court has resumed partially, yet there is believed  to have split over the decision between lawyers over hybrid mode of functioning preferred by senior lawyers while  many wanting to return to old forms i.e physical hearing on all days a week.

Under the hybrid mode, it is up to the lawyer to decide whether he or she wants to be present during physical hearings or appear online.

According to the decision of Supreme Court the physical hearing is to be held only on Wednesdays and Thursdays. A mix of offline and online hearings will be conducted on Tuesdays. On Mondays and Fridays the court will continue to hold virtual hearings

In Court no. 1 Senior Advocates Rakesh Dwivedi and Ranjit Kumar thanked Chief Justice of India for resuming physical hearing at which the CJI Ramana responded that "we may start it on a larger scale after Deepawali"

In Court no. 4, Justice D.Y Chandrachud heading a bench with Justice M.R. Shah greeted with welcome for the counsel. He told the counsel "we are happy to see you all. You cannot imagine how lonely it is to see the screen every morning. It's so good to see all the faces who bring joy and sunshine intellectually".  He also added " let's hope we keep seeing the faces physically"

                                            Lawyers in the corridor of the Supreme Court

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                                Lawyers waiting in queue for entry

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Lawyers outside the entry pass counter.

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    Download PDF for SC notification for Physical hearing.