What do trials during a lockdown look like? A Bombay high court judge goes live for 2 hours Ever since the spread of covid-19 prompted a nationwide lockdown, courts have been conducting proceedings via video-conferencing.
But unlike proceedings in non-pandemic times, most of these hearings have been inaccessible to the public. The video links are available only to the judges, court staff and the parties concerned.
The Supreme Court is especially strict in the procedure followed: If the video links to any of its hearings is shared beyond the approved list of participants, the links risk deactivation.
On 9 April, however, Justice G.S. Patel, a Bombay high court (HC) judge, opened up his court’s proceedings. In a first for the HC, hearings