The Supreme Court has taken cognizance of the closure of virtual hearings in High Courts and Tribunals. The court has issued notices to all the High Courts and some tribunals asking whether hybrid (physical and virtual mode) hearings are being held in them or not, if not then why.

The court has directed to file the affidavit within 10 days. The top court will hear the case again after two weeks.

These instructions were given by a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud while taking cognizance of the complaint filed by a petitioner regarding closure of virtual hearing in the High Court. Justice Chandrachud thanked the petitioner for raising this important issue before the court and said that he would do something in this regard. He had been thinking about it for a long time.

The court told the petitioner that he brought an important issue before the court. Justice Chandrachud said that he will issue a notice to all the High Courts asking about the status of hybrid hearing.

Apart from this, the court has requested Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to take instructions from the Finance Ministry and inform about the Debt Recovery Appellate Tribunal, Debt Recovery Tribunals and other tribunals under it and help the court in the hearing.

In this case, petitioner Sarvesh Mathur had said in the Supreme Court that the Punjab and Haryana High Court has stopped the virtual hearing which had started at the time of Corona. Due to closure of virtual hearing, clients and other people are facing problems.