The Supreme Court may try a mixed mode of physical and virtual court hearings from the first week of September.
Discussions are on within the court to continue with virtual mode of hearings, which began with the advent of the pandemic in March 2020, on Mondays and Fridays for hearing miscellaneous cases, which include PILs.
In regular matters, which may require detailed arguments and perusal of documents, the court may consider physical sessions. The regular cases usually come up on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
However, no final decision has yet been taken. The court is keeping in mind reports about the third wave of the pandemic. It does not want to launch the “mixed mode” and then abort it midway in case of a prospective rise in COVID-19 cases.
Thursday saw the court experiment with a new virtual hearing app, Cisco, to beam the proceedings in Justice A.M. Khanwilkar's court in the post-lunch session. The court has been using the Vidyo app. Senior lawyers and even judges have complained about the constant interruptions in connectivity with the Vidyo app.
