First in India: Telangana HC takes court to lawyers’ doors

HYDERABAD: In a first such initiative in the country, the Telangana high court has launched a mobile videoconference district court facility, taking technology to the doorstep of lawyers who have no computers or the internet facility at their homes, in Warangal on Monday.
In this facility, a mobile van would go to a designated area and lawyers have to simply get into the van, equipped with videoconference system, and argue their case.This facility, introduced in Warangal for the first time in the country, was inaugurated by high court Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice P Naveen Rao on Monday through online mode. In Warangal, principal district judge K Jaya Kumar and district collector, who provided the van, were present when the facility was inaugurated.
Known for its pioneering digital court initiative in the country, the Telangana high court had gone virtual and were holding courts through videoconferencing mode ever since the lockdown was announced three months ago. For lawyers not tech savvy, separate computer rooms were allotted at Judicial Academy in Secunderabad to argue their cases before the high court.
In fact, the Telangana high court is the sole high court where all its judges have been holding videoconference courts. Online filling of cases was allowed and courts‘ functioning picked up pace. Now, district judiciary too is going digital. “If the experiment in Warangal is successful, then we will ask all district collectors to provide vans with computers to provide virtual argument space for lawyers at their doorstep if they are unable to equip themselves at their homes on their own,” high court registrar general A Venkateswar Reddy said.