Court No. - 49
Case :- APPLICATION U/S 482 No. - 9543 of 2021 Applicant :- Ashish Agarwal Opposite Party :- State of U.P. and Another Counsel for Applicant :- Pavan Kumar Counsel for Opposite Party :- G.A.
Hon'ble Vivek Agarwal,J.
1. Sri Pawan Kumar, learned counsel for the applicant.
2. This application has been filed by the applicant being aggrieved of order dated 12.01.2021 passed by learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Bijnor, whereby an application filed on behalf of complainant- Ashish Agarwal seeking permission to lead his evidence through video conferencing has been rejected on the ground that facility of video conferencing to record evidence of complainant is not available in the District Court and, therefore, said liberty cannot be granted in favour of the applicant.
3. On last date of hearing, i.e. 10.06.2021, a co-ordinate Bench of this Court had directed the Registrar General of this Court to furnish a report with regard to facility of video conferencing in the District Judiciary at Bijnor.
4. That report has been submitted by the Registrar General and in the report signed by one Mr. Saurabh Dwivedi, Joint Registrar (J)/CPC, it is categorically mentioned as under:-
"(i). In every District studio based video conferencing unit is used for remand and other urgent judicial work for the entire District with jails. This facility is available only on internal network through NIC between jails and other districts.
(iv). Only one internet connection facility is available for each District Court which is used for administrative/training/inaugural purposes.
(v). The video conferencing rules has been notified by the State Government on 27.11.2020, after necessary approval of Hon'ble Full Court. In para 8.9 of said Rules, the provision of audio visual recording of the Court proceedings with respect to examination of person is given, which is one of the essential requirements, for which no facility presently exists in District Courts."
5. In view of such report, given by Mr. Saurabh Dwivedi, Joint Registrar (J)/CPC, I do not find any illegality in the impugned order calling for interference in extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court. As and when infrastructure is provided by the State, then in accordance with the Rules framed in this regard, video conferencing facility may be available to the litigants, but for the present, no indulgence is required.
6. Application fails and is dismissed.
Order Date :- 29.7.2021 Ravi/-
Digitally signed by Justice Vivek Agarwal Date: 2021.07.30 11:03:35 IST Reason: Document Owner Location: High Court of Judicature at Allahabad