To speed up execution of pending criminal cases in the Jharkhand’s lower courts, online trials will now be accompanied by testimony and Section 164 statements. Statements of police officers and doctors related to the case will also be recorded online on time. Testimony, trial against witnesses and statement under 164 will be taken online. All parties will be given a link for videoconference through all can join the hearing. Court proceedings on videoconference cannot be recorded unofficially. After implementation of the Jharkhand High Court Video Conferencing Rule-2020, all courts have been directed to initiate these procedures. This rule has been implemented in all courts and tribunals.
The trial in the lower courts of the state had been closed from a long time in the lockdown. Now hearings have started, but only in important cases. Bail petitions are being heard. Trials have been stayed in most cases. Many cases are in the testimony stage and some are yet to be cross-examined. Due to this, the burden of criminal cases was constantly increasing on the courts. State courts are conducting hearings online with the ban on the arrival of clients in court premises. All judges are conducting virtual hearings from their residential offices itself. If during testimony, people from far-off areas do not have the network facility for videoconferencing, the concerned district judges will have to arrange for the same. They have to taken to a place from where they can easily connect online. Help of District Legal Services Authority will be taken and if deemed necessary, the testimony or statement under 164 can be taken in Public Facilitation Center in the courts.
The plaintiff or other parties involved in the hearing of the cases will be allowed to join and will have to apply to the registrar for this. Complete details have to be provided in prescribed format. After the permission of the court, they will be sent the link for video conferencing and they can watch the court proceedings. In any criminal case, the investigating officer and doctors will also have to record their statements online. In case the investigating officer is transferred to another district, he will have to record statements online from the new district. For this, they can go to their district headquarters. The district headquarters will have to make arrangements. The same provision has been implemented for doctors.
Hearing of all cases in the courts, organizing Lok Adalat, mediation and settlement of family disputes, summons and notices are also being issued online. Lawyers though do not want to continue with the online system. They say that online hearings has created problems as work has been interrupted and with clients not coming to courts, they have suffered economically. They want cases to be heard as before and bar associations of several districts have applied to their courts and bar councils.
