Lok Sabha Question No. 1417 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-07-28
Subject: Court Hearings during COVID-19 Lockdown
Ministry: LAW AND JUSTICE
Asked by: Mohanbhai Kalyanji Kundariya, Dipsinh Shankarsinh Rathod

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE (DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE)

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION No. 1417 TO BE ANSWERED ON FRIDAY, THE 28 th JULY, 2023

## Court Hearings during COVID-19 Lockdown

## 1417. SHRI MOHANBHAI KALYANJI KUNDARIYA: SHRI DIPSINH SHANKARSINH RATHOD:

Will the Minister of LAW AND JUSTICE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the country has been appreciated globally for conducting the hearings of  courts  during  the  COVID-19
- lockdown and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of hearings conducted by the courts during the said lockdown, court-wise;
- (c) the methods or mediums that were utilized for conducting these hearings; and
- (d) the details of expenditure incurred by courts in conducting the said hearings, court-wise?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) OF THE MINISTRY OF LAW AND JUSTICE; MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS; AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE (SHRI ARJUN RAM MEGHWAL)

(a) & (b) : Video conferencing emerged as the mainstay of the Courts during the Covid lockdown period as physical hearings and normal court proceedings in the congregational mode were not possible. During the covid period, the case clearance rate in 2020 for District & Subordinate Courts was 61.47% and it rose to 80.22% in 2021 due to robust ICT infrastructure, thus making India a global leader  in  conducting  court  hearing  through  Video  Conferencing.  Since  Covid lockdown  started,  the  District  &  Subordinate  courts  heard  1,98,67,081  cases while the High  Courts heard 78,69,708 cases (totalling 2.77 crore) till

30.06.2023  using  video  conferencing.  The  Supreme  Court  held 4,82,941 hearings till 15.05.2023 since the beginning of lockdown period. The court-wise details  of  virtual  hearings  conducted  since  Covid-19  has  been  attached  at Annexure-I.  To  bring  about  uniformity  and  standardization  in  the  conduct  of VC, an overarching order was passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India on 6th April 2020 which gave legal sanctity and validity to the court hearings done through VC. Further, VC rules were framed by a 5-judge committee which was circulated to all the High Courts for adoption after local contextualization. One video  conference  equipment  each  has  been  provided  to  all  Court  Complexes including  taluk  level  courts  and  additionally  funds  have  been  sanctioned  for additional VC equipment for 14,443 court rooms. Funds for setting up 2506 VC Cabins  have  been  made  available.  Additional  1500  VC  Licenses  have  been acquired. VC facilities are already enabled between 3240 court complexes and corresponding 1272 jails.

(c) : Holding of court proceedings is an administrative matter and falls strictly under  the  domain  of  judiciary.  It  is  for  courts  to  decide  whether  court proceedings are to be held physically or online.The Courts across the country are  presently  using  various  video  conferencing  platforms  such  as  Vidyo,  Jitsi Meet,  Google  Meet,  Microsoft  Teams,  Cisco  WebEx  etc.  to  conduct  virtual hearings through video conferencing.

(d): In the Phase-II of the eCourts Project, out of total outlay of Rs. 1670 crore, the Government has released a sum of Rs. 1668.43 crore as on 31.03.2022 to various  organizations  involved  in  the  implementation  of  the  project.  This includes a sum  of Rs. 111.29  crores released for installation of video conferencing  infrastructure  such  as  video  conferencing  equipmentfor  court rooms, VC Cabins, VC Licenses and Document Visualizers, etc in Courts and Jails.

*****

## Annexure-I

Statement referred to  in  reply  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  for  28/07/2023  regardingCourt Hearings during Covid-19 lockdown. The court-wise details of virtual hearings conducted since Covid19are as under:

| Number of cases dealt with virtual hearings in High Courts and DistrictCourts as on 30 June 2023   | Number of cases dealt with virtual hearings in High Courts and DistrictCourts as on 30 June 2023   | Number of cases dealt with virtual hearings in High Courts and DistrictCourts as on 30 June 2023   | Number of cases dealt with virtual hearings in High Courts and DistrictCourts as on 30 June 2023   | Number of cases dealt with virtual hearings in High Courts and DistrictCourts as on 30 June 2023   |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| S. No.                                                                                             | High Court                                                                                         | High Courts                                                                                        | District Courts                                                                                    | Grand Total                                                                                        |
| 1                                                                                                  | Allahabad                                                                                          | 241609                                                                                             | 4715226                                                                                            | 4956835                                                                                            |
| 2                                                                                                  | Andhra Pradesh                                                                                     | 380257                                                                                             | 1416538                                                                                            | 1796795                                                                                            |
| 3                                                                                                  | Bombay                                                                                             | 41058                                                                                              | 103510                                                                                             | 144568                                                                                             |
| 4                                                                                                  | Calcutta                                                                                           | 142353                                                                                             | 84539                                                                                              | 226892                                                                                             |
| 5 Chhattisgarh                                                                                     |                                                                                                    | 103323                                                                                             | 51560                                                                                              | 154883                                                                                             |
| 6 Delhi                                                                                            |                                                                                                    | 318964                                                                                             | 4725322                                                                                            | 5044286                                                                                            |
| 7 Gauhati - Arunachal Pradesh                                                                      | 2295                                                                                               |                                                                                                    | 8128                                                                                               | 10423                                                                                              |
| 8 Gauhati - Assam                                                                                  | 266221                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 366667                                                                                             |                                                                                                    |
| 9 Gauhati - Mizoram                                                                                | 3963                                                                                               | 13268                                                                                              |                                                                                                    | 632888 17231                                                                                       |
| 10 Gauhati - Nagaland                                                                              | 945                                                                                                |                                                                                                    | 678                                                                                                | 1623                                                                                               |
| 11 Gujarat                                                                                         | 388945                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 194963                                                                                             | 583908                                                                                             |
| 12 Himachal Pradesh                                                                                | 183911                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 124491                                                                                             | 308402                                                                                             |
| 13 Jammu &Kashmir                                                                                  | 258457                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 477088                                                                                             | 735545                                                                                             |
| 14 Jharkhand                                                                                       | 219493                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 652867                                                                                             | 872360                                                                                             |
|                                                                                                    | Karnataka                                                                                          | 1229767                                                                                            | 130114                                                                                             | 15 1359881                                                                                         |
| Kerala                                                                                             | 161911                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 560308                                                                                             | 16 722219                                                                                          |
| Madhya Pradesh                                                                                     | 671241                                                                                             |                                                                                                    | 826174                                                                                             | 17 1497415                                                                                         |
|                                                                                                    | Madras                                                                                             | 1432188                                                                                            | 376473                                                                                             | 18 1808661                                                                                         |
| 19 Manipur                                                                                         | 38695                                                                                              |                                                                                                    | 15288                                                                                              | 53983                                                                                              |
| 20 Meghalaya                                                                                       |                                                                                                    | 3735                                                                                               | 34301                                                                                              | 38036                                                                                              |
| 21                                                                                                 | Orissa                                                                                             | 301492                                                                                             | 260759                                                                                             | 562251                                                                                             |
| 22                                                                                                 | Patna                                                                                              | 277203                                                                                             | 2245253                                                                                            | 2522456                                                                                            |
| 23 Punjab                                                                                          | &Haryana                                                                                           | 581047                                                                                             | 2041363                                                                                            | 2622410                                                                                            |
| 24                                                                                                 | Rajasthan                                                                                          | 231257                                                                                             | 181705                                                                                             | 412962                                                                                             |
| 25                                                                                                 | Sikkim                                                                                             | 487                                                                                                | 13510                                                                                              | 13997                                                                                              |
| 26                                                                                                 | Telangana                                                                                          | 299031                                                                                             | 190327                                                                                             | 489358                                                                                             |
| 27                                                                                                 | Tripura                                                                                            | 10606                                                                                              | 14254                                                                                              | 24860                                                                                              |
| 28                                                                                                 | Uttarakhand                                                                                        | 79254                                                                                              | 42407                                                                                              | 121661                                                                                             |
| TOTAL                                                                                              |                                                                                                    | 7869708                                                                                            | 19867081                                                                                           | 27736789                                                                                           |