NEW DELHI: The COVID-19 pandemic has brought enormous hardship to people but it has also driven courts to adapt to technology to a far greater extent, former Supreme Court judge Justice (retd) A K Sikri has said.
Justice (Retd) Sikri, however, said the judiciary has the challenge to make legal technology available to the courts in the remotest parts of the country.
“We are a vast country. We have not just the Supreme Court or high courts in metropolitan cities, but there are smaller high courts, mufassil courts and district courts in different parts of the country and at remote places which may not be having this technology,” he said, adding the Supreme Court is already working on these challenges.
Justice (Retd) Sikri, who is now an international judge at the Singapore International Commercial Court, was speaking on Saturday at a virtual discussion on the ''Legal Powerlist 2020'', an event to identify and felicitate hundreds of successful and upcoming lawyers, law firms and law schools in the country.
The event was also attended by senior advocate R Venkatramani, Raian Karanjawala, the Managing Partner of Karanjawala & Co. Law firm; and Karan Kalia, the co-founder and CEO of legal tech platform Legitquest.
Talking about the criticism that judges and the judiciary have been facing on social media, Venkatramani said rather than pointing towards individuals who behave recklessly on online platforms, there is a need to develop a culture of using social media responsibly.
“There is no option but to live in an open society. Social media is an unowned media. The first milestone to be crossed is that we need to develop a higher level of culture of how one should use social media responsibly. It''s useless to talk about picking up individuals who seamlessly cross the limits of this responsibility,” he said.