A city sessions court while denying permission for holding a hearing through video-conferencing in an appeal in a domestic violence case has said there is "tremendous disturbance in connectivity" and "weak internet connectivity problem" for the same.
The court has started normal functioning like in pre-pandemic times since 1 February after a 29 January circular to that effect. The court said that it has attained normalcy in proceedings and physical hearing has been taking place day to day. "Even otherwise the experience shows that there is tremendous disturbance in connectivity in video-conferencing. This court has to run down at the video-conferencing room to note the attendance of prisoners," it said, detailing its difficulty.
Additional Sessions Judge BV Wagh further stated, "Considering the weak internet connectivity problem to the video-conferencing facility and now the physical hearing has been permitted, the request of the applicants cannot be assented."
Earlier by an order in mid-September last year, the court had permitted video-conferencing for the parties. It referred to this order and said that effective hearing court not be conducted and the matter is still lingering at the same stage as it was in. Referring to the court's record of proceedings in the case in mid-December last year, it said that the record shows that due to connectivity issues the hearing was not possible and hence advocates of both parties were directed to remain present physically. It was in response to this direction that the plea for video-conferencing was filed.
In the plea the applicants Vijay Kumar Goel, 70 and Aruna Goel, 68, had told the court that they are based in Haryana and are senior citizens. Their advocate is based in Delhi, they had said further while seeking hearing through video-conferencing.
