Verdict through video conferencing in High Court

Panaji, Aug 14 (UNI) The Bombay High Court at Goa made a sort of history when two judges of the court, now posted in Mumbai, delivered a judgement using video conferencing technology.

The judges R M S Khandeparkar and R S Mohite, comprising a Division Bench in Goa, reserved their judgement on a petition challenging the land acquisition proceedings by the government at Shelvona for building a railway siding terminal for the South Western Railway.

Their transfer to Mumbai later did not deter them from delivering the verdict. Their judgement was heard and the video conferencing proceedings were watched with rapt attention in Goa yesterday.

Thanks to the internet technology that came handy to the judges to deliver the judgement, which went in favour of the petitioners.

The courts in Goa and Mumbai were provided connectivity through the broadband that made the task easier.

Court sources here said the two judges, in normal course, had to come over here all the way to render the verdict, causing a lot of delay and expenditure.

''It is for the first time in the history of the High Court that technology has come handy in the judicial proceedings,'' counsel for the petitioner Mahesh Sonak exclaimed.

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