Andhra Pradesh High Court issues guidelines for hearing of cases through video conferencing during lockdown period in the Subordinate Courts
Following are the guidelines:
- All the Subordinate Courts shall ensure that the measures have been taken to reduce the need for the physical presence within Court premises and to secure the functioning of the Courts in consonance with social distancing guidelines and best public health practices shall be deemed to be lawful.
- All the Subordinate Courts shall ensure that the urgent cases are heard by adopting the mode of video conferencing through a convenient video conferencing app/software.
- The Subordinate Courts can proceed with pronouncement of judgments/orders in Civil cases by issuing notices to both the counsels through whatsapp, e-mail and also by uploading the notice in the official website of District Court under the caption ‘NOTICE’.
- The facility of video conferencing for the stakeholders including legal aid counsel is to be provided for participating in hearing of the cases through video conferencing, if they are not having such facility. The concerned District Legal Services Authority or Mandal Legal Services Committee shall take care of arrangement of such facility, if they are approached by the stakeholders.
- All the Judicial Officers shall note that since the High Court is in the process of framing transitional guidelines for e-filing and video conferencing, the video conferencing shall be mainly employed for hearing arguments whether at trial stage or appellate stage.
- The trial Courts shall record evidence in urgent cases through Video conferencing only, with consent of both the parties.
To read the detailed guidelines, please follow the link:
Andhra Pradesh High Court
[Notification dt. 08-04-2020]