New Delhi, Mar 26 (IANS): The Supreme Court on Thursday announced it will continue to function amid the three-week nationwide lockdown period to hear matters involving extreme urgency through video conferencing. Three two-judge benches will hear 20 matters on Friday.

A bench of Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Suryawill sit at 11 a.m. to hear 111 urgent matters. The second bench comprising Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose, will sit at 1 p.m. to hear seven urgent matters. Finally, the last bench comprising Justice Arun Mishra and Justice Deepak Gupta will begin hearing at 3 p.m. Only two matters are listed before this bench.

"To obviate the inconvenience that may be faced due to unforeseen linkage issue of the 'Vidyo' video-conferencing, as detailed in para 4 of the said Circular dated March 23, the advocate-on-record (AOR)/Party-in-person are requested to mention their alternative Skype, Face-time or WhatsApp contact details, if any, along with other details in their mentioning application," said the circular issued by the apex court.

The apex court said that since the prevailing situation demands that persons be discouraged from undertaking any kind of journey/travel, the Supreme Court Registry is taking all steps necessary to conduct the hearings through remote video conferencing (VC) links.

"Hence AORs/Parties-in-persons are advised to refrain from exercising the option of participating in the hearing through VC link facility available at the SC premises for the present, as that would entail unnecessary and avoidable travel through public spaces," added the circular.

The apex court said the AOR are requested not to share VC link with anybody. "Sharing of link will deactivate the original link shared with AOR on his e-mail. Only one link well be activated for VC," said the court.

The circular said that for all matters involving extreme urgency, the AOR/Party-in-person is first required to file the petition/application, preferably through the e-filing mode available on the SC Website.

"Thereafter, and upon completion of all formalities as per rules governing such petition/miscellaneous application, the AOR/Party-in-person is permitted to file separately the signed and verified application containing a synopsis of extreme urgency not exceeding one page, at mention.sc@sci.nic.in, as per procedure detailed in para. 3 of the said Circular dated March 23," said the circular.