In a first at the Bombay High Court, at least 500 participants, along with lawyers, court staff, law students and journalists, joined a live-streaming virtual courtroom on an experimental basis. Justice Gautum S Patel heard nine listed cases and one urgent matter during the open-for-public video-conferencing held through the Zoom app between 12 noon and 2 pm. Besides Bombay HC, Kerala High Court has started live-streaming of court hearings through Zoom. Bombay HC Chief Justice Bhushan P Dharmadhikari on April 1 had nominated Justice Anil K Menon and Justice Gautam S Patel to hear extremely urgent civil and criminal matters through video-conferencing between April 1 to April 7 and April 8 to April 14, respectively. After Thursday’s successful experiment, Justice Patel issued a press release stating that until his assignment up to April 14, he will continue to live-stream hearings. On Wednesday, he had issued a press release stating his decision to conduct live-streaming on a trial basis. However, the court had cautioned that though virtual, it is nonetheless a court hearing and therefore appropriate court conduct is required from participants. Justice Patel had warned against recording the proceedings. He allowed advocates to wear “sober” attire during the hearing without making mandatory the usual black, white and robe. The virtual court began at 12 noon and the judge heard 10 civil and criminal cases, including urgent anticipatory bail and bail pleas by prisoners in view of the COVID-19 outbreak, relief sought by student debarred from college for smoking cannabis in campus, commercial arbitration cases and public interest pleas seeking facilities to ashram shalas meant for tribal children among others. After conclusion of the hearing, he sought feedback and suggestions from lawyers. Advocate Niteen Pradhan, who was seeking facilities in tribal areas, and other lawyers, said the exercise was helpful and necessary in the current situation. Justice Patel, however, said it is becoming problematic to get access to physical papers through registry since there is only skeletal staff present due to restrictions on travel. “We cannot achieve purpose of social and physical distancing with normal procedures during extraordinary situation. We can try for digital paper filings and everyone has to update the skill sets,” said Justice Patel. He will conduct next virtual courtroom hearing on Saturday.
