The Income Tax Appellate Tribunal (ITAT) on Monday issues Standard Operating Procedure for Hearing through Video Conference.
In pursuance to the Office Order of Hon’ble President, ITAT dated 16th April 2020, wherein the Zonal Vice Presidents were advised to take all precautionary steps for opening the offices of ITAT, and also to take up the hearing of extremely urgent matters, the modalities and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) have been drawn up, keeping in mind the procedures evolved by various Courts, to hear matters involving extreme urgency in the Benches falling in the jurisdiction of Delhi Zone.
The Government of India, for the purposes of conducting virtual court hearing through the mode of Video Conferencing, the Vidyo Video Conference platform is found preferable because of the security features, including the end-to-end encryption, ease of use and the operating environment of the ITAT. However, Cisco Webex is also under consideration as an alternative or stop-gap arrangement on account of any disruption in the use of the Vidyo Video Conferencing facility due to technical difficulties, etc.
“An Invitation Link and Meeting ID for appearance and viewing, as the case may be, will be sent by the Registry to the given mobile number(s) by SMS at least one hour before the scheduled hearing,” the circular said.
The circular has prescribed that the AR/DR/Assessee-in-person are required to follow the particular protocol for the smooth, efficient, and dignified conduct of proceedings on entering the Virtual Courtroom.
In furtherance with the protocol, the AR/DR/Assessee-in-person are required to ensure that the Microphone (mic) is in mute mode till such time as required to make a submission(s); thus, when one party is making submissions, it is imperative that all other participants shall keep their respective mic muted, failing which the possibility of mic catching audio feed from the speakers and creating ‘echo/noise disturbance’ would become very high and may disturb the Virtual Court Proceedings.
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