Associate, Singhania & Co. LLP, Bengaluru
Video conference session of the Indian Court: A first-hand experience
Work from home – a culture that has been adopted by every second organization in the difficult times of pandemic. But the Indian Courts, despite being overburdened with cases, couldn’t have possibly switched to the not-so-feasible work from home, for obvious reasons. Nonetheless, the Indian Judiciary has time and again risen up to the occasion and made efforts to provide services online, whether it being e-filing or taking up matters through video conference whereby maintaining the social distancing norms.
I had the privilege to attend one of my matters before the National Company Law Tribunal, Bengaluru via video conference. Though it was overwhelming to have the matter listed, in the prevailing difficult times, the experience wasn’t all that beautiful.
A few detailing of the scheduled hearing below shall leave you with awe at the well organized hearing process:
- A WhatsApp Group was created by the Hon’ble Registry comprising of the Advocates whose matters were listed for hearing wherein queries regarding the video conferencing were promptly resolved. The Advocates were divided into various Groups on the basis of their Item Nos. in order to avoid any chaos.
- A trial link for Vidyo, a video conference application, was sent by the Hon’ble Registry about an hour before the scheduled Court session began.
- The main link with the password was sent at the time of the scheduled hearing.
- The Parties were directed to mute their mike, at all times, except when submissions were to be made.
However, despite a well organized Court session, I had almost missed my chance to appear before the Hon’ble Bench. Here is why:
- Firstly, the main link and password was sent at the time of the scheduled hearing and not a few minutes earlier. So when all the Parties in the Group rushed to login through the link, at the same time, a few like me couldn’t do so.
- Secondly, and most importantly in my opinion, was because Vidyo, the video conference application, being relatively new to me was not very user friendly.
Keeping the technical glitches aside, the entire Court session was conducted smoothly. It is astounding that Indian Courts have adapted and embraced technology. Like it is said, technology is here to stay!
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