Point of Law: Covid-19 - Pandemic - Streamlining process of virtual hearing and restraining personal/physical hearing - Circular restarting of physical hearing of District Court and also from its subsequently having corrected its stand on realizing current dangerous proportion of trend of infection in State and in Country due to COVID-19 viruses.

ORDER :

SONIA GOKANI, J.

1. The present petition is preferred under Article 226 of the Constitution of India filed by the petitioner in the public interest seeking directions against the respondents for streamlining the process of virtual hearing and restraining personal/physical hearing before the respondents considering the recent pandemic of COVID-19.

The petitioner is an advocate enrolled on the roll of the Bar Council of Gujarat and practicing in various Courts. He has been member of various committees of the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India (ICAI) and is also an RTI activist and has given the details of various PILs, he has preferred before this Court.

2. According to the petitioner, due to severe outbreak of COVID 19 virus, which led to pandemic, the High Court had issued circular on 22.03.2021 issuing guidelines for virtual functioning of the Courts. According to him, latest records of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation dated 29.03.2021 are indicating possibility of spread of infection of COVID-19 to its maximum level and there is a continuous rise in the number of patients. It has also led the State Government imposing the night curfew in the metropolitan towns. The grievance on the part of the petitioner is that the respondent No.1 issued a notification dated 19.03.2021 along the line of circular issued by this Court on 05.02.2021 of opening of physical hearing of the District Courts. It would be appropriate to reproduced the circular dated 19.03.2021 of the Respondents:

Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority 4th Floor, Sahyog Sankul,

Sector-11, Gandhinagar-382010.

Telephone No.:(079)-232-58659

Website: https://gujrera.gujarat.gov.in

No:GujRera/VHT/2073/2021 19/03/2021

Circular:

Subject: Direction regarding quasilegal procedures to be carried out at authority level.

Hearing of Suo Motu, NCQR, NCAR and complaints cases is conducted online at the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Gandhinagar due to COVID-19 pandemic. But, SOP has been issued by the circular dated 05/02/2021 of the Gujarat High Court to start physical hearing in the High Court and Subordinate Courts from 01/03/2021. Therefore, hearing of Suo Motu, NCQR, NCAR cases will be conducted online at the Gujarat Real Estate Regulatory Authority, Gandhinagar as a part of saving time and energy at the authority level. It has been decided at authority level that offline hearing will be conducted in consumer redressal cases at authority and adjudicating level.

Thus, all the applicants and concerned parties are hereby informed to remain present during online as well as offline hearing of cases.

Sd./-

Secretary,

The Gujarat Real Estate

Regulatory Authority,

Gandhinagar.

3. The grievance on the part of the petitioner is that the respondent no.1 stopped the virtual hearing and insisted on the physical hearing in view of the said circular dated 19.03.2021, interpreting the High Court circular dated 05.02.2021. The proceedings before the respondents is of summary nature and do not require the presence of witnesses or leading of oral evidence and therefore, the requirement of physical hearing as contemplated for the District Courts can not be equated with the proceedings before the respondents.

3.1 According to the petitioner, the National Company Law Tribunal, Ahmedabad and the Debt Recovery Tribunal, Ahmedabad etc. have also chosen to stop hearing through physical mode and are adopting the virtual hearings therefore, various communications have been made by the petitioner for seeking the informations regarding the physical hearing conducted by the respondents authority and on some of the occasions, the requests for starting of virtual hearing also were made, the details of which also is provided in the petition, but in vain. According to the petitioner, this continuation of the physical hearing would be life threatening for the lawyers and the litigants. It is urged that like the tribunals such as NCLT working on hybrid mode, there has to be some balance to be ma