Why in News ?

Parliamentary Panel on Law and Justice has recommended continuation of virtual courts even in a post-COVID scenario. Law Ministry For Virtual Courts for fast progress of pending cases. 

Virtual Courts

• Virtual Court is a concept aimed at eliminating presence of litigant or lawyer in the court and adjudication of the case online.
  • The court has been hearing urgent cases through video-conference.
  • The Benches hearing these cases sit in the courtrooms, while lawyers make their submissions , through video links from their homes or offices.
  • The court had named this mechanism the virtual court system.
• How it helpful
  • It will reduce the cost of litigation substantially, and will make the justice system much more accessible, especially to the poor.
  • Regular court establishments to virtual courts will reduce the pending cases.

Support for Open Court Hearing

• Constitutional Support 
  • Article 145(4) of the Constitution of India provides that no judgement shall be delivered by the Supreme Court other than in open court.
  • Under Article 143 no report shall be made other that in accordance with an opinion also delivered in open court.
• Law mandates open court hearings in all criminal and civil cases.
  • Section 327 of the Criminal Procedure Code
  • Section 153-B of Civil Procedure Code

Issues with Virtual Court

• Complaint regarding the network connectivity sometime it Disconnected halfway.
• Also sounded that infrastructure needs to be upgraded especially in district courts to implement this.
• Present infrastructure does not support virtual court proceedings.
• Many lawyers, particularly in district courts, do not have any laptop or computer facility.
• Video-conferencing system, was subject to frequent crashes of the system and entire proceedings can be vitiated by one glitch.
• Concern Over Privacy
  • Virtual courts will compromise privacy of data as well as confidentiality of discussions and court proceedings.
  • Hacking and compromise to internet security while using a third party conferencing application is the core issue.

Way Forward

Third party software in not a good option as it compromises security. Address data privacy and data security concerns while developing a new platform for India’s judicial system.

Source : The Hindu

Topic

GS III : Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies

Current Affairs Compilation : 12 September 2020