Lawyers should be provided laptops or mobile phones inside the courtroom: Supreme Court
Last Updated on March 6, 2023 by Administrator
While giving a speech at the Inauguration of the new administrative block of the High Court Calcutta on Wednesday, The Chief Justice of India, Justice DY Chandrachud, contended that Ipads, laptops or mobile phones should be allowed inside the courtroom, providing that they are not watching a movie.
The programme began with the lighting of the inaugural lamp and the delivery of a welcome address by the chief justice of Calcutta.
At the beginning of his speech, CJI expressed the problems of inadequate space faced by lawyers and judges. He said, “I have worked in 2 premiere high courts, and I am quite aware of the fact the inadequacy of space can be a severely constraining factor. How registries work under the tremendous burden, adequate spaces are not available for the bar, even the judges can have better conditions of work. In a sense, technology has enabled us to travel across the space in a fraction of a second, we need not wonder when futuristic technology allowing us to travel from city to city, and country to country in a few minutes will be invented because that technology is already before us in the form of video conferencing”.
The CJI shared his personal motto in regard to the adoption of technology. He said, “ for the needs of tomorrow, act today.” He also added, “Rather than choosing a strategy where we design technology to respond to problems which have already arisen, we must embrace a strategy where we periodically revamp our existing systems by using technology. If we do this, we will be able to meet any challenge head-on regardless of whether the challenge is foreseen.” He mentioned that public institutions must not lag behind private entities or individuals in adopting the technologies.
While expressing his views regarding the importance of mobile phones in society, he recollected his memories of the time when mobile phones were banned in the courtroom. He said, “we have to be kind to ourselves as just we have to be kind to the members of the bar and the litigants. Just the other day I heard not a complaint or a grievance but a little bit of a suggestion from a young junior who was working on her iPad in a courtroom in one of our premier High Courts. While working on her IPad, the usher of the court came to the young junior and said ‘you have to switch off your iPad because this is not in accordance with the discipline of the court.”
He further added, “A young junior or a young lawyer or any lawyer for that matter working on an iPad within the precincts of the courtroom should be allowed to work on it so long as they’re not watching movies on the iPad or on their laptops. We must trust people. We must set up internet facilities within our courtrooms and of course, have adequately maintained firewalls so that the facility is put to genuine and authorised use.”
While speaking of websites, he said, “I take this opportunity to encourage Calcutta high court to revamp and modernise website. There is an urgent need to do so. We at the supreme court are also in the process of accessing the changes that our website requires. A periodic review and upgradation of the website will ensure that it remains user friendly including for those who are physically challenged.”
Lastly, the CJI mentioned that the judiciary system is now entering phase 3 of the e-courts project. He stated, “in the recent union budget, over 7000 crores has been allocated for the e-courts project without single cuts being affected.”
He added, “as we anticipate the release of the first tranche of the funds for Phase III. We must begin planning now on how we will utilize the funds which will be allocated to the judiciary in the state of West Bengal and ensure that these funds are put to use immediately and for good purpose. Otherwise, the funds which are made available to the judiciary will simply lapse and there will be nobody else to blame but us if we are not able to utilize the funds which have been made available to us.”
Lastly, he shared an initiative where, in the supreme court, the transcripts of oral arguments are available to the lawyers at the end of the day and then to the public. He said, “These initiatives will not only truly make us a court of record as I said, but going beyond that they will foster the cause of legal education by enabling our law colleges not merely to have a look at the written word or the text of the judgments, but the antecedent material in the form of arguments which are made by lawyers so as to give a new understanding or appreciation of the work which we as judges do.”
Written By – Shagun Behal
