On Monday, the Delhi High Court issued an office order for the district courts in National Capital, directing them to accept hybrid hearings. Earlier, the counsel parties had to appear physically in the courtroom during the hearing. In case of hearing through video conferencing, one had to make a formal request either in writing or through email atleast one day before the proceedings. The step has been skipped in this order to ease the hearing procedures.
In the order, the High Court says,” The hearings shall be conducted in hybrid/video-conferencing mode in conformity with the High Court of Delhi Rules for Video Conferencing for Courts, 2021 and also bearing in mind the provisions of the Live Streaming and Recording of Court Proceedings Rules of the High Court of Delhi, 2022.”
It means, now, there will not be any geographical barrier for the counsel or parties while appearing in the courts as they can access to the proceedings from any part of the world.
The issued order further stated that during the hearing through the hybrid mode, the judicial officer shall ensure that no any third person or entity can access the proceedings in some certain category of cases. Those cases include matrimonial matters, sexual offences cases, gender biased violence against women, and the matters pertaining to POCSO and the Juvenile Justice Act of 2015.
Moreover, parties who are not linked to the case won’t be allowed to join the proceedings of the matters where the publication might be considered to as \’antithetical to the administration of justice’ or ‘may provoke enmity amongst communities or resulting in breach of law and order.
Source: https://www.barandbench.com/news/litigation/delhi-high-court-makes-hybrid-hearings-mandatory-in-all-district-courts-in-national-capital
