On Wednesday, the Supreme Court informed that since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, more than 15,000 cases have been heard out of which 4,300 matters have been disposed of by means of Videoconferencing.
The Supreme Court Press Note
Apex Court released a press note stating that 1,021 Benches of the Court heard a total of 15596 matters from March 23, 2020 till date constituting 1,423 matters listed before the Registrar Court while 10,754 main matters and 3,419 connected matters were also heard.
Approximately 4,300 matters out of total have been successfully disposed of by the Supreme Court.
Comparison of work done in other countries
A comparison in the press note has been made. The disposal rates in other jurisdictions like the UK (which decided 29 Case between March 18 and August 17); the US (which decided 44 Case between March 20 and August 17); Canada (which decided 14 Case between March 27 and August 17), etc have been quite low in comparison with India.
ALSO READ- Over 200 Advocates Oppose Resumption Of Physical Hearings In SC
Statistics released by the Supreme Court
The Supreme Court released other statistics which include:
- 50,475 approx. – Total No. of Advocates appeared through Video/Tele-Conferencing
- 65,000 approx. – Total No. of VC footfall of Advocates, Litigants & Media persons
- 2,930 -Cases file through e-filing
- 3,194- Cases filed via physical counters
The Fact was highlighted that the SC Registry from March 16, 2020 till date has not been shut down even for a single day.
Due to the aggressive measures taken by the Court to check the spread of infection and despite around a hundred and quarter members of the Registry staff and their immediate family testing COVID positive, it was made possible.
Steps taken by the Court in providing Justice
The Supreme Court to ensure access to justice and adhere to the open court concept adopted various other steps:
- To facilitate the lawyers and litigants, who may face difficulty in joining the video Conferencing, 12 facilitation rooms have been created. Of these, 5 facilitation rooms are functional from Additional Building Complex of the SC and 7 VC facilitation rooms are functional, one each from the District Court Complex of Delhi. Technical VC assistance is provided in these VC facilitation rooms.
- 7 dedicated helplines have been established covering all aspects of assistance to advocates and litigants.
- To facilitate the media to witness and report the proceedings, dedicated media rooms have been established and approximately 30 media persons may see the proceedings live.
