Mangal Sardar v. The High Court Administration And Others

OD - 10

IN THE HIGH COURT AT CALCUTTA

Constitutional Writ Jurisdiction ORIGINAL SIDE WPO(P)/5/2021 MANGAL SARDAR -VersusTHE HIGH COURT ADMINISTRATION AND ORS.

BEFORE :

THE HON'BLE CHIEF JUSTICE T.S. SIVAGNANAM And THE HON'BLE JUSTICE AJAY KUMAR GUPTA Date : 26th June, 2023 Appearance :

Mr.S.N. Mookerjee, Advocate General, Mr. T.M. Siddiqui, Adv.

for the State.

Mr. Siddhartha Banerjee, Adv.

Mr.Soumyajit Majumdar, Adv.

..for the High Court Admin.

The Court : This public interest litigation was filed during the peak of Covid pandemic highlighting the need for starting virtual hearings through video conferencing in lower judiciary including the other courts and the tribunal. We have travelled a long distance and the virtual hearing facility has been established in almost in all districts and they are working and the Hon'ble ECommittee of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of India is also monitoring the effective functioning of the virtual hearings throughout the country and periodic reports have been submitted by the Registry of the High Court at Calcutta to the Hon'ble ECommittee. That apart, the computer committee of this Court is also monitoring the matter and the Registry is also convening periodic meetings with the senior officials

of the Government of West Bengal and highlighting the issues wherever infrastructural requirements are to be complied with. Therefore, we are of the view that the matter at this juncture can be left to be decided by the administrative side of this Court with the fond hope that the State Government will extend support to ensure that the project of virtual hearing and e-governance in so far as the judiciaries is concerned is made on par with any other State in the country.

The learned Advocate General has submitted that the Government of West Bengal has granted their no objection to the proposal of the Judicial Department towards executing the work of setting up video conferencing with land connectivity in court complexes across the State of West Bengal by engaging Webel Technology Limited (WTL) in relaxation of tender rules with a direction that WTL will execute the job by inviting e-tender in terms of FD Memo.8-172f dated 1.3.2006 read with 3876-f dated 2.5.2005. The learned Advocate General has also produced the copy of the note dated 12.5.2023 in this regard. It is further submitted by the learned Advocate General that in addition to the above, a financial sanction is being accorded to Rs.20 crore and the matter will be forwarded to the Finance Department on 28th June, 2022.

The above submission is placed on record. In view of the above, the writ petition stands disposed of. (T.S. SIVAGNANAM) CHIEF JUSTICE (AJAY KUMAR GUPTA, J.) S.