Mumbai: Video-conferencing will be reintroduced for all quasi-judicial hearings before the joint registrar, district deputy registrar, and deputy registrar. In a circular issued last week, the state cooperatives department said, “In case an applicant seeks a hearing via video-conference before a quasi-judicial authority, such a hearing will be provided. All necessary equipment will be provided for holding such hearings.”
It was in 2021 that the Bombay high court directed the state govt to provide the video-conferencing facility in a PIL filed by RTI activist and former information commissioner Shailesh Gandhi. He demanded that the video conferencing facility introduced by the govt during the Covid pandemic be continued as it would greatly help people who otherwise have to travel long distances for a hearing.
