Adopting technology to its maximum use is one of the notable achievements of the Karnataka High Court. Covid scenario forced Judiciary all over India to create online platforms for videoconferencing that helped thousands of lawyers to effectively argue their cases sitting in different locations. https://wordpress.com/post/dakshalegal.blog/1205
During Covid scenario the Karnataka High Court dealt with batch of Writ Appeal/Petitions when nine Senior Advocates including Solicitor General of India and Additional Solicitor General of India, more than 25 instructing counsel – all logged in from different parts of the country and one from abroad, 5000 pages of documentation and marathon hearing for 25 working days including two Court holidays, totally 61 hours of hearing. This is the biggest experimentation by the Karnataka High (Virtual) Court in the matter of Securities Exchange Board of India vs Franklin Templeton Trustees Services Pvt Ltd & others decided on 24 October 2020.
The Corona related lockdown and closure of courts opened a new avenue of virtual courts through video conference. The judiciary especially High Courts across the country are fully equipped with the new technology. The court staff are fully trained. The complements given by the learned advocates in Securities Exchange Board of India vs Franklin Templeton Trustees Services Pvt Ltd & others shows the hard work and efficiency exhibited by the court staff in handling the entire matter brilliantly.
Now, Karnataka High Court is all set to introduce ‘Vconsol’, an Indian made application for video- conferencing. Vconsol was selected by the Government of India as the winner of innovative challenge for video conferencing platforms.
The application platform is already a success in Kerala High Court and was used for conducting the virtual proceedings before the division benches.
‘Vconsol’ app has customized features for court-hearings. It provides separate log-ins for judges, advocates, court-masters and members of public. A notable feature is that the advocates get automatic entry to the VC hearing as soon as their case numbers are called. There is an option for judges of the bench to have private chat between themselves.
The Karnataka High Court had been using ‘Zoom’. The recent hacking of the Zoom platform raised serious questions of safety apart from creating embarrassment.
Another striking feature is the ‘hand-raise’ option given for advocates, which can function as a ‘virtual mention’ facility. If an advocate attending the VC session wants to make a mention, the ‘hand raise’ icon can be clicked to invite the attention of the bench.
Members of general public can also log-in the VC hearing as ‘passive participants’ to watch the proceedings of cases for which public access has been allowed.
‘VConsol’, developed by a Kerala-based startup Techgentsia Software Technologies Private Limited, won the Union Ministry’s “Innovation Challenge for Development of Video Conferencing Solution” in last August. Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad, declared ‘VConsol’ as the winner.
Details of the Application can be found in the enclosed file. Please download and acquaint yourself.
Daksha Legal 