Judges Committee, SCBA office bearers to hold meeting on SOP: SC

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said a meeting between the judges' committee and the newly-elected representatives of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) will be convened on SOP concerning hybrid hearings.

A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, was hearing a petition filed by the executive committee of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) challenging the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the apex court recently on hybrid hearings by it.

"Mengful consultation can only be with the judges' committee," said Justice Kaul, leading the bench.

"We are of the view that it will be in the fitness of things that the members of the bar iron out their differences in the perception of SOP, for which the appropriate course will be to hear the newly elected representatives of the bar," the bench also comprising Justice R Subhash Reddy said.

The SCBA had said that the Supreme Court has taken the decision without taking the bar into confidence even though it is an equal stakeholder in the justice delivery system.

Senior lawyer and former Additional Solicitor General (ASG) and President of the SCBA, Vikas Singh, said that the pandemic is on the decline.

"Theatres and other things opened with strict measures in place," Singh said.

The apex court had passed its orders on SOP, without hearing SCBA, Singh said.

"You (the judges) are completely in a sterilized zone," he said.

The apex court said it would call upon the secretary-general to request the Judges Committee to fix a formal meeting with the Bar and fixed the matter for further hearing to next Tuesday.

Singh said that SOP be set aside by the apex court and the matter of hybrid hearing should be heard afresh.

( With inputs from ANI )