HC appreciate role of DOT & Petitioner for taking cause of internet connectivity
Himachal Pradesh High court appreciated the role of DDG Rural (DOT) petitioner & suggestions of state level co-ordination committee to improve high speed connectivity
The Division bench of Himachal Pradesh High court comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia appreciated the above party making special mention on December 22 during in hearing the matter in open court .
The bench said that commendable efforts made by Deputy Director General Rural of Department of Telecom, petitioner Vandhan Mishra who is one of Member of State Level Coordination Committee is appreciated.
Bench also referred and read a letter addressed by the Chief Justice of India N V Ramana to Minister of Law, Justice, Communications, Electronics and IT, on July 8, 2021.
Letter was to brought attention of Union Government on the issues to strengthen the network and connectivity beyond major urban centers, particularly in rural and tribal areas, as the digital divide is adversely impacting the functioning of the Courts in the wake of COVID19 pandemic.
“CJI asked union government to augment the provisioning of vaccines to immunize all the functionaries associated with the Courts and their families across the country to facilitate full scale functioning.” court said.
CJI also asked the Government to recognize all the functionaries of the Courts, including the advocates, as frontline workers for the purpose of providing pandemic related relief; and to provide financial support to advocates, especially the junior advocates, who are struggling to make both ends meet due to loss of work for more than a year since the onset of pandemic.
CJI emphasized that the judicial infrastructure needs to be augmented with latest information and communication technology tools to facilitate Access to Justice during the post pandemic time and further judicial infrastructure needs to be streamlined and revamped to deal with the challenges of pendency.
CJI also observed in recent meeting with all high court Chief Justice that a blue print of the proposal to set up the National Judicial Infrastructure Corporation(NJIC) is in the final stages of preparation and will be shared with the Union Government shortly.
“I am of the firm belief that concerted efforts need to be put it, in order to materialize this concept, in view of the challenges put forth by the pandemic.” Court mentioned reading the steps taken by CJI on this matter.
We are of the considered view that the concern expressed by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India should not be confined to the functioning of the Courts alone, but also be read in a wider context, more particularly, to redress the issue concerning the school going children, majority of whom are still having classes online, the 20 page order issued by the bench said.
Court also appreciate the commendable work and efforts being put forth by the Deputy Director General (Rural)HP, LSA(Local Switching Area) Department of Telecom Shimla, in rendering valuable assistance to this Court by giving valuable suggestions.
We also appreciate and acknowledge the efforts of the petitioner and also the steps being taken by the State level Coordination Committee.
The court also directed the Telecom Service Provider including Jio, Airtel and BSNL to address the issue of poor services and mobile signal shadow areas in some places beside extending services in the rural and tribal areas where internet connectivity is not available.
Court held that TSP may raise their grievances before the court if they have any while replying on issue of improving their internet connectivity in rural areas where their is digital divide between the urban and rural areas.
Court also took cognizance on the delay in installation of power connections by state electricity board to Telecom towers as one of service provider alleged that despite depositing of advance for installing connection power supply delayed for years.
Now court fixed the hearing on this matter on Jan 5, 2022 seeking reply from the state , union of India and TSPs to address number of issues related with expansion and improving internet services in the state.
