Video conferencing helps authorities save on time, manpower, risk

One of the major developments in the recent past is the introduction of the video conferencing facility between the District Courts complex and the Model Jail, Burail.

Not only has the facility been a time saviour, but thanks to this facility, the risk factor involving the transportation of the convicts from the jail to the courts and the manpower used in the process has considerably reduced.

However, the video conferencing facility, which started on November 22, is still at a nascent stage and only the cases in which the police is yet to submit a challan are being heard. Since November 22 to December 28, 505 accused were virtually produced out of a total of 1528 accused. For each accused, one police constable is deployed.

"Once we are able to streamline the video conferencing, examination of witnesses will also be conducted through videoconferencing. This will be helpful in having faster proceedings as the time taken in video conferencing is much less," said the District and Sessions Judge, SK Aggarwal.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Lines, Suman Kumar said, "Before this facility had started, we used to make arrangements for bringing 60-65 accused from Burail Jail to the court complex for hearing everyday. Now the number has gone down to 30 on an average".

He also added that earlier the police used to send a TPM about shortage of police force to other states and to the other police units of UT police department. Since the facility has started, the problem of shortage has also been sorted.

"We were facing a great difficulty to produce the accused in the court. But, after starting of the video conferencing, we are now able to produce the accused in other states also. If the process successfully continues, many police personnel will be available for various other duties," said DSP Suman Kumar.

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