Court allows litigant to depose via video-conferencing

New Delhi, Mar 15 (UNI) In a landmark development under the Indian judicial system, a Delhi court today allowed hearing to an NRI doctor, based at New Jersy, US, through video-conferencing.

The NRI doctor had filed a petition before the city court for the custody of his two minor daughters and expressed his inability to come to India on which the court allowed him to depose through video-conferencing.

The doctor was married in the year 1994 and later got separated from his wife in 1998.

He had alleged that his ex-wife had kidnapped his two daughters aged 13 and 9.

Earlier, the Indian Consulate in the US expressed its inability for the arrangement of video-conferencing to which the court asked the doctor to arrange the same on his own.

The court also directed the External Affairs Ministry officials to be present at the time of proceedings so that the identity of the witness is authenticated and the proceedings are conducted in a fair manner.

After the statement was recorded, the typed copy of the statement would be sent to the US where the witness would put his signature in presence of the officials of Ministry of External Affairs.

This new step would be helpful for the litigants who are living at distant places and can not appear before courts and judicial proceedings are delayed due to their non-appearance.

UNI XC RC BD1834