Gujarat High Court Notifies Revised SOP For VC Hearing Enabling ‘Waiting Room’ For Participants, Says Decorum Must Be Followed
The Gujarat High Court on Thursday (August 7) notified revised Standard Operating Procedure to be followed for Virtual/Hybrid Hearing of Cases enabling a “Waiting Room for all the participant who intend to join Court Proceedings through the online mode.
The revised SOP states that participants must behave in a manner befitting the majesty and decorum of the Court, shall exhibit disciplined behaviour and attend the online proceedings from a place with decent ambience and nor from a vehicle. It further says that failure to comply with the directions mentioned in the revised SOP shall invite contempt proceedings.
The circular issued by the Registrar General refers to the high court’s June 30 order passed while initiating a suo motu contempt case (against a man who was captured seated on a toilet seat during the court’s online proceedings. The high court had in its order had asked the Registrar, Information Technology to inform on the mechanism to stop contumacious litigants in participating in live-streaming proceedings observing that such uncontrolled behaviour had become frequent.
The circular states:
“Now, as per the directions issued by the Hon’ble Court vide an oral order dated 30/06/2025 passed in Criminal Miscellaneous Application (for Contempt) No. 12821 of 2025 (Suo Motu), and as approved by Hon’ble the Chief Justice in view of the decision taken by the Hon’ble Full Court of the High Court of Gujarat and in supersession of the earlier revised Standard Operating Procedure for Virtual / Hybrid Hearing of cases in the High Court of Gujarat issued vide Circular No. ITC/234/2024, dated 20/02/2024, the following Revised Standard Operating Procedure for Virtual / Hybrid Hearing of Cases in the High Court of Gujarat, are issued…“
The revised SOP states:
1. Virtual / Hybrid joining link shall be published in the Cause list published for the particular day which will available on high court’s website, Causelist Emails sent to Advocates and Party-in-persons. By clicking the joining link the participants will be be directed to the waiting room of the Virtual hearing of the high court.
2. Waiting Room of VC application will be enabled for all the participant(s) who intend to join Court Proceedings through the Virtual hearing.
3. Display Name of the Advocates / Litigants joining in the Virtual hearing must be properly set out by the participants stating the Serial No. followed by exact and actual name of the advocates/party-in-person/litigants so that the Court Master knows beforehand whom to be admitted in the particular matter on hand.
4. The Court Master has to verify the display name of the advocates/party-in-person as printed in the cause list and after verification, the Court Master shall promptly admit the participant to the Virtual hearing. During the hearing, if the presence of the litigants or any other Persons is required by the high court, the Court Master may admit the Litigants or any other Persons as per the instructions.
5. Without proper display name as mentioned, no participant(s) will be admitted to Virtual / Hybrid hearing.
6. For the mentioning session, the Court master shall admit all the persons available in the waiting room and after mentioning is over, they shall leave the Virtual platform. If any of them do not leave, the Court Master shall put them into the Waiting Room. However, the advocates/party-in-person who are present in the waiting room shall be admitted when their individual cases are called out for hearing.
7. The Advocates must be dressed in professional attire and if they are not dressed so, the right of audience may be withdrawn by the Court. Similarly, a Party-in-person(s) / Litigant(s) must be appropriately dressed.
8. Court proceedings conducted in Virtual mode are judicial proceedings for all purposes, and all protocols applicable to physical Courts shall apply to Virtual / Hybrid proceedings.
9. Cell phones (other than used for Virtual/ Hybrid Hearing) shall be switched off or kept in airplane mode during the proceedings.
10. Participants shall avoid using multiple devices at the remote location to eliminate the chance of echo / disturbance.
11. The participants may log in from his office, residence, conference room, etc., but not from a vehicle like a car etc. The remote location should be quiet and have sufficient internet coverage. The participants should have the camera switched on during Court proceedings. All participants should endeavour to look into the camera, remain attentive and not engage in any other activity during the proceedings.
12. Only the Advocates/duly authorized persons in the matter would be entitled to address the Court. The Court Master concerned may mute/unmute any other participants.
13.Participants shall regulate their microphones to avoid disturbing the Court proceedings. At the time of joining, the microphone should be kept muted. The microphone may be unmuted only when the matter is called out. The Court may direct the Court Master to mute the microphone of participant(s) if there is a disturbance in the Court proceedings.
14. The circular states that subject to “The Gujarat High Court (Live Streaming of Court Proceedings) Rules, 2021”, recording of the Court Proceedings is not allowed.
15. In cases where proceedings are required to be held in-camera, virtual hearing may be restricted to the parties and/or their advocates.
16. The Court Masters shall remove the participants immediately, when any Advocates/ Litigants/Party-in-persons/Individuals participating in the Virtual session behave indecently or do not conduct themselves befitting the decorum of the Court, from the Virtual / Hybrid session using the ‘Remove’ facility available in the VC Application and action as directed by the Court shall be taken in the matter.
The circular further states that the Participants who intend to join, in Virtual / Hybrid hearing shall:
a. present themselves in a manner befitting the majesty and decorum of the Court and they shall exhibit disciplined behavior in virtual hearing.
b. present themselves from a place having decent ambiance, which shall not impinge the dignity and decorum of the Court, and in case they join the live proceedings through mobiles, they shall not leave such place and wander/roam with the instrument/device during the virtual hearing.
c. maintain utmost discipline and decorum for upholding the dignity and majesty of the Court, as mentioned in Clause (j) of Rule (5) of the Gujarat High Court Live Streaming of Court Proceeding Rules, 2021.
It further states that the Advocates shall intimate their Clients Litigants who intends to join, in Virtual / Hybrid hearing, to scrupulously follow the aforesaid instruction.
“Failure to comply with the above directions, shall invite contempt of Court proceedings,” the circuclar adds.