On Friday, October 16th, 2020 the Karnataka Hugh Court while hearing a case said that “advocates do not address the court on VC hearing by sitting in the car, maintain court decorum”. The HC said this when an advocate participated in the video conferencing while sitting inside a car. The court adjourned the hearing by one month.
The matter when called out, the advocate who was appearing for the petitioner appeared before the court while he was sitting inside a car. The bench comprising of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Ashok Kinagi then said that “Video conferencing hearing also has some norms. You cannot sit in the car and address the court”. The advocate for the petitioner also made a request seeking time to file a rejoinder to the statement of objections submitted by the state government in his case and went offline due to network issues.
The division bench said that “Though due to extraordinary reasons we are forced to hear matter through video conferencing hearing. We hope and trust members of the bar will follow minimum decorum”.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the courts were forced to switch to virtual hearings in the month of March but now the courts have started to come back on physical hearing. Last month the Gujarat High Court gave the SOP for the physical hearing which ensured proper testing and relatively less chance of virus spreading.
