Chennai: Soon subordinates courts will have video conferencing facility across the state. Making the submission regarding this before the Madras high court the state government said Rs 22.83 crore has been allotted for procurement of 233 video conferencing equipment and accessories in 233 court complexes in Tamil Nadu.
State home department has filed the affidavit before Justice T. Raja when a petition from H. Ramakrishnan came up for hearing on Wednesday. Ramakrishnan sought for a direction to implement the order of Supreme Court dated March 9, 2017, to issue suitable instructions to all district courts to access the video conferencing facilities.
The matter relates to a matrimonial dispute between the petitioner and his wife. As Ramakrishnan was residing in London, he was not able to attend the family court proceedings initiated by his wife in Cuddalore district. Hence, he sought for a direction to the Cuddalore family court to avail the video conference facility enabling him to utilise the facility as he was unable to move from London often to attend the case.
When the matter was taken up for hearing the department filed the affidavit on Wednesday and stated that on July 4, 2018, as per the directions of the Supreme Court the state government had allotted the amount for procurement of 233 video conferencing equipment and accessories covering 32 districts in the state in two phases.
For the financial year 2018-19 an amount of Rs. 11.41 crore was allotted and for the financial year 2019-20 another sum of Rs.11.41 crore was allotted to 233 court complexes covering 32 districts in Tamil Nadu. The judge then posted the matter after two days.
