Court mandated assessment and enhancement of IT infrastructure to enable effective video conferencing for tribunal hearings, recognizing the need for operational integrity during the pandemic.

JUDGMENT

Prathiba M. Singh, J. (Oral)--This hearing has been done through video conferencing.

2. The present petition has been filed by the Debt Revenue Tribunal (hereinafter, "DRT"), Bar Association, Delhi, raising grievances in respect of the video conferencing hearings which are being conducted at DRT.

3. The grievance of the Petitioner is that the IT infrastructure, which is required for conducting hearings is not being made available, thereby leading to disruption in the hearings and an erratic filing system, among other technical issues.

4. This Court has, from time to time, passed various orders in this petition. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been impleaded in this matter vide order dated 29th June, 2020. The Court has also recorded, vide order dated 15th September, 2020, that video conferencing facilities are available, however, DRT has not been functioning properly.

5. Ms. Bharathi Raju, ld. counsel appearing for the Ministry, has filed a status report that as on November, 2020, sufficient funds have already been released to the DRT's Registrar's account, in order to enable them to increase the bandwidth, as also to set up any other requisite infrastructure. The said affidavit reads as under:

"3. As regards the provision of additional funds to the 3 DRTs for increasing the bandwidth from 10 mpbs to 100 mpbs, it is submitted that an amount of Rs.10,00,000/- each has been allocated to DRT-1 and 2, Delhi thus making their budget in hand as on 12.10.2020 to be Rs.16,40,000/- and Rs.16,39,000/- respectively. An amount of Rs.11,00,000/- has been allocated to DRT-3, Delhi thus making the budget in hand with DRT-3, Delhi to be Rs.15,80,000/-"

6. Today, Mr. Sanjeev Bhandari, ld. counsel submits that despite funds having been granted and provided, there is no sufficient progress in setting up the IT infrastructure for enabling virtual hearings in the DRT.

7. Considering the fact that several hearings have gone by during the pandemic, and yet the grievances of the bar association continue to exist, the following directions are passed:

i. A committee of Mr. Sarsij Kumar (M:9650006723) and Mr. Zameem Ahmad Khan (M:9650006732) from the IT Department of the Delhi High Court, are requested to hold a meeting with the three Registrars of DRT-Mr. A.K. Pahuja (M:9560002835), Mr. A.K. Dhar (M:9892375264) and Mr. A.K. Thakur (M:9560508744), two of whom are present in the proceedings today. They shall assess the requirements of the DRT in order to enable the smooth functioning of hearings by the three sets of officers i.e. the Presiding Officers, the Registrars and the Recovery Officers. The officers, apart from interacting with the Registrars are also permitted to visit the premises of the DRT, if required to make an assessment of the IT hardware availability.

ii. The said officers of the Delhi HC IT Department may also meet representatives who may be nominated by the Debt Revenue Appellate Tribunal Bar Council Association, and understand the difficulties being faced by the DRAT/DRT Bar.

iii. After assessing the requirements of the said tribunals, both for e-filing and video conference hearings, the said officers shall draw up the IT infrastructure requirement that would be needed in terms of hardware, bandwidth and video conferencing platform licences.

iv. The budget which would be required for the same shall also be drawn up.

8. A consolidated report, with respect to the said directions, shall be filed by the said two officers of the IT department before this Court within two weeks.

9. List for hearing on 12th February, 2021.