Decision On Online-Physical Hearings Within A Week: Bombay High Court

The Bombay Bar Association had last week sent a representation to Chief Justice Datta requesting for hearings to be conducted via video conference or a combination of physical and online methods so that those lawyers who do not wish to travel can appear before the court online.

The Bombay High Court today said it would take a decision within this week on whether to use a hybrid system (online and physical) of hearing matters in view of the surge in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra. Earlier this month, the Nagpur and Aurangabad benches of high court reverted to video conference (VC) hearing of cases owing to the rise in COVID-19 cases. The Bombay bench of high court is, however, hearing matters physically. On Tuesday, senior advocate Vikram Nankani, while mentioning the petition filed by former Mumbai police commissioner Param Bir Singh against Maharashtra home minister Anil Deshmukh, told a division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni that senior counsel Mukul Rohatgi would appear for Mr Singh if the option of video conference hearing was available.