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Apex Court of India performed far better than courts of other nations during lockdown
Outbreak of corona virus has affected all sectors throughout the globe. Judiciary is no different and it has also faced many challenges. The day lockdown was announced by prime minister Narendra Modi, open court hearings were stopped. Supreme Court issued order to just hear urgent matters and that too on video conferencing. Certain benches such as Indore bench were even stopped from hearing matters due to increased corona virus cases in the court staff itself. Still, the courts in India have performed far better than many other countries in the world such as United States of America, United Kingdom, Singapore and Canada. The Supreme Court of India has heard matters on 22 days from 22nd March to 1st May. Although instances were seen where lawyers breached the court room manners or they faced technical glitches. Hiccups were faced in listing of cases whereas many petitions were dismissed. For easing the filing of petitions and streamlining it, e-filing might be introduced soon. According to the official data, 537 matters were considered urgent and heard by the Supreme Court. Even judgement was delivered in 57 matters. During this lockdown phase itself 49 special leave petitions, 92 writ petitions, 138 review petitions and 58 pleas for interim reliefs were also taken up. India is not just the only country which is taking up matters through virtual platform rather many countries including China, Ireland, France Italy, Australia and numerous others are hearing matters through video conferencing. Many countries are relying on virtual methods for justice in this phase. But the amount of cases heard by Supreme Court of India are way more than any other nation. Many developed countries have not even crossed the figure of 50 cases. Following are the number of cases heard by Supreme Court of those nations according to there official data -Canada -
| SL.NO | COUNTRY | NO. OF CASES HEARD |
| 01 | CANADA | 08 |
| 02 | USA | 28 |
| 03 | UK | 18 |
| 04 | SOUTH AFRICA | 47 |
| 05 | AUSTRALIA | 18 |
