The Supreme Court has issued a new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for conducting the final hearing of cases in physical form from September 1. Also, the hybrid option will be used from Tuesday to Thursday in view of compliance with the Corona norms.
This standard procedure has been issued in the direction of Chief Justice NV Raman. He has taken this decision after taking into consideration the recommendations of the Committee of Judges constituted to consider the demands and requests of the Bar bodies.
Due to Corona, the apex court has been hearing cases through video conferencing since March last year. But for some time now many times the body and lawyers have been demanding to start the direct hearing again.
In the standard procedure issued by the Secretary-General on August 28, it has been clarified that the courts will continue to hear various cases online on Monday and Friday.
According to the SOP, it will be mandatory to follow the corona rules in the court premises. If litigants and lawyers opt for a direct hearing, then they will not get the facility of hearing through video or teleconferencing.
In view of gradual re-introduction of physical hearing, the final hearing/regular matters listed on non-various days may be heard directly (with hybrid option) as may be decided by the respective bench, the SOP said. At the same time, hearing of all other matters including the listed cases on different days will continue through video/teleconferencing.
The bench, which is adopting the direct channel, may take a pause of about 15 minutes during the hearing so that the courtroom can be sanitized during this time. According to the SOP, if the number of lawyers for the parties is more than 20, then as per the Kovid norms, the bench can resort to an online hearing at any time.
Lawyers will have to register on the Supreme Court's portal and file their preferences to appear before the bench within 24 hours of the matter being listed for hearing. It states that the parties to a case shall not be allowed to enter the matter before ten minutes before the commencement of the hearing.
Lawyers/parties coming for a physical hearing will be allowed to enter the High-Security Zone (HSZ) only through the Daily Special Hearing Pass issued by the Registry. The parties to the case will be given entry ten minutes before the direct hearing.
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