Shillong, June 2: An advocate from Shillong with a litigation in Gauhati High Court will no longer need to travel more than 100km to fight his case. He can now say “My Lord...” through video conferencing from the Shillong bench of the high court.

On Wednesday, the Shillong bench of Gauhati High Court became the second bench in the region to get the video conferencing facility. Chief Justice Madan B. Lokur launched the new facility.

Agartala was the first among the six benches in the region to launch the video conferencing system on May 2.

Speaking to reporters from the high court via the video conferencing facility, Chief Justice Lokur said: “This system would immensely help litigants and advocates. Advocates can sit in Shillong and argue the cases with their counterparts present in Gauhati High Court. The physical distance vanishes.”

He said the facility, apart from speeding up administrative work, would also help in disposing of urgent cases at the earliest.

Asked whether the system would be a regular feature, the Chief Justice said: “The system will be need-based. Only urgent cases will be heard and disposed of through video conferencing.”

Stating that the system would help litigants and advocates save time, he said judgments could also be passed via the technology.

Among all the high courts in the country, Gauhati High Court is the second after Delhi to introduce this new system of holding trials. The video conferencing will be operated by the National Informatics Centre (NIC).

The Chief Justice also said there were around 52,000 cases pending before Gauhati High Court for disposal.

The Shillong bench has nearly 826 cases pending till Wednesday.

Later, through the video conferencing system, Chief Justice Lokur also had a conversation with Justices T. Vaiphei and B.K. Sharma to discuss various matters. In October last year, the Chief Justice had launched the website and an e-kiosk of the Shillong bench. He had said with technology, disposal of cases would be better and faster.

He had also stressed on the use of technology to help the registry, litigants and advocates. With two benches already having the video conferencing facility, the benches yet to be given the same kind of system include the Kohima bench, Imphal bench, Aizawl bench and Itanagar bench.