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The Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Wednesday announced that the Supreme Court will now adopt full physical hearing of matters from Monday (April 4, 2022).

However, CJI Ramana told that requests by advocates for virtual hearings will be considered on Mondays and Fridays.

The Supreme Court has announced a full physical hearing after two years of moving to virtual hearings due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Earlier, An intervention application (IA) was filed by 114 lawyers seeking resumption of normal court hearing /complete physical hearing as was prevailing prior to March 16, 2020 i.e. before the pandemic.

In the IA, it was argued that virtual hearing is an exception carved out to meet the extraordinary crisis caused due to pandemic but a motivated writ Petition has been filed under the guise of Article 21 to declare the exception as rule and a fundamental right.

Reliance was placed on Section 153-B of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908 and Section 327 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 which requires as a general rule, all civil and criminal cases to be tried in open court.

Whereas, on several occasions, members of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) and Supreme Court Advocates on Record Association (SCAORA) had written to the Chief Justice of India, expressing displeasure over the non-resumption of physical court hearings.