Uniform video conferencing norms across all courts soon: Kiren Rijiju

New Delhi, Dec 10:  Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on Friday said in the Lok Sabha that the government has been working on a uniform video conferencing guideline for all courts of the country very soon.

Noting that hearing of the cases via video conferencing will help in dealing with pendency of cases, he said in 21 High Courts, the government, in consultation with them, has implemented rules for video conferencing. "We are in trial mode so that we can provide a uniform video conferencing across all courts of the country," the Minister said.

Responding to a question asked by the BJP lawmaker J.S. Mahto on the status of e-courts mission mode, Rijiju also said the digitalisation of all courts has been in progress and during the entire Covid period the Courts have done commendable jobs.

Replying to a question asked by the BJP MP Manoj Rajoria that orders by e-courts should also be given in Hindi and the local language, the Minister said that this would be done once the digitisation is completed.

Hasnain Massodi, National Conference MP urged the government to find an alternative arrangement to keep online court proceedings out of the Internet clampdown in Jammu and Kashmir due to security reasons. The Law Minister informed the House that during his last visit to the union territory, a lot of suggestions were made from the lower courts in this regard and the Department of Justice has been working on the possible ways to keep the judicial functions out from the Internet clampdown.

During the question hour, the members also asked questions about the impact of the sanctions on the Chabahar Port project after the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar said that this agreement was signed in 2016, possession was taken in 2018. "Terminal is fully functional and US sanctions are not relevant to this project at all," he said.

Replying to the BSP MP Ritesh Pandey, the Minister clarified that the US sanctions were not effective on India's Chabahar port project in Iran.