NEW DELHI: No senior advocate wants to appear in physical hearings and only a handful of them are getting benefited from the virtual hearing through video-conferencing mode, the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday.
The observations came from a bench headed by Justice Vineet Saran at fag end of the hearing on the appeal of the West Bengal government against the Calcutta High Court order directing a court-monitored CBI probe into the heinous cases of rape and murder during the post-poll violence there.
The bench, also comprising Justice Aniruddha Bose, issued notices to the Centre and others on the plea of the state government.
"Mr (Kapil) Sibal (who was appearing for the state government) is getting in-person instructions. He will get in-person instructions but he does not want to appear in person. In fact, no senior advocate is willing to appear in physical hearing," the bench observed.
"It's a far more efficient system," Sibal said, adding that many young lawyers and women advocates are appearing and arguing their cases through video-conferencing mode.
A handful of senior lawyers is getting benefited from this (virtual hearing)and many young lawyers have faced difficulties because of virtual hearing, Justice Saran said.
SCBA has been demanding the re-opening of physical hearings in courts.