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The Bar Council of India , chairman , Manav Kumar Mishra has written a letter to the Chief Justice of India , Sharad Arvind Bobde , requesting him to issue directions to resume operation of courts throughout the length and breadth of the country from 1st of June 2020.BCI Chairman also mentioned in his notice that he should keep in mind the consensual view and yearning of the lawyers across the country. Manav k. Mishra also mentioned in his letter that The BCI has consulted and taken opinion of the State Bar councils too.
The chairman also wrote in his notice reflecting the concerns of high pendency rate of cases which are as high as 80% relating to the trial matters and rest 20% of cases fall in the category of writs petitions , appeals etc and further he said that since the courts are focusing on hearing only the most important matters as of now , only 10% of cases qualify for being heard through virtual mode.
He also propounded that this system of hearing of urgent matters through virtual mode was partial and biased as a handful of privileged class of advocates are beneficiaries to virtual court system as compared to entire Legal fraternity.
He wrote that “the feedback we have overwhelmingly received, is not enough for listing of cases even in this category where they can be adequately entertained. Only a handful of privileged class of lawyers are the beneficiaries of the virtual court system, to the rest 95% of lawyers, access to justice remains a dream, this is the harsh truth”.
He also Enlighted that the hearings made by High Court and District Courts to list other matters is upon joint request on the virtual dimension , and in antagonistic matters either of the party tries to delay the matter as much as possible thus parties cannot be expected to bring the cases at an end by mutual understanding.
There are almost 95% advocates are without any court work and court appearances thus have barely to make ends meet and there is a resentment developing among lawyers, BCI wrote to Chief Justice.
He also threw a light upon the facts that State Bar Councils received several lakhs of request to financially assist the needy Advocates and Bar Council with their limited financial resources have done their bit to help such advocates but this cannot be prolonged as Bar Councils doesn’t get state grants.
Therefore, Mishra has urged to open the physical courts as virtual courts cannot replace the traditional court hearings due to the lack of technical knowledge and infrastructure and also due to law and procedures of dispensation of justice in trial matters which occupies 80% in litigation spectrum in India.
He also mentioned in his letter that it’s hard to believe that COVID-19 Is not going to go soon, thus we have to learn to live and work with it and take all the precautionary measures to keep the virus at bay. Its been over 60 days since lockdown has been imposed and has taught us about the precautions need to be taken and that’s why government and private sectors have started functioning with minimum presence.
With the plea Manav have also provided with suitable remedies to re-open physical hearings before the courts. The suggestions that he provided included restricted entry of advocates, screening and following social distancing norms strictly while conducting the trial, time-slot hearing. He further added that virtual court hearing may be held as an exception when both the parties mutually agree to it.
In the end he concluded by saying that the request of BCI should be given a deep thought, the request of the Legal Fraternity of the country and take appropriate decisions which may fit necessary.
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