The Supreme Court (SC) has issued a circular detailing the standard operating procedures (SOP) to ease the process of mentioning, e-filing, and video conferencing of hearings amid the lockdown due to COVID-19.
The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday issued fresh guidelines and standard operating procedures (SOP) to be adopted by advocates and litigants during the hearing of matters of “extreme urgency”.
Taking into account the recommendations made by the various Bar bodies, the Supreme Court has laid down a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the Court procedures during the COVID-19 lockdown. This circular is in supersession of previous circulars issued by the Apex Court in March.
The Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) requires the Advocate on Record (AOR) or the Petitioner in-person to file the petition or application through the e-filing channel provided on the main website of the Supreme Court, in accordance with the procedure prescribed.
The circular said in the mentioning-application, “the AOR and party-in-person must specify as to whether he would link to the bench by video-conferencing through his own desktop/laptop/mobile phone or would prefer to appear at the video-conference facility on the Supreme Court premises”.
Desktops, laptops and tablet computers provide stable connections for video-conferencing, whereas a signal drop or an incoming call on a mobile phone can de-link such devices from an ongoing video session, the circular said.
“It may be noted that a maximum of two appearance-links will be provided per party, together with one viewing-link that may be provided for the litigant separately; hence, it is expected that request(s) of such links, if any, should be clearly made in the mentioning-application to enable the Registry to provide the links in time at each point, at the time of the hearing,” the circular added.
Subscribe Taxscan Premium to view the Judgment
