2020 has been a challenging year for IFF’s litigation team because the functioning of the Supreme Court and High Courts was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. After the nationwide lockdown was announced in March 2020, courts across the country shut down their physical premises and migrated to virtual hearings conducted through video conferencing. Virtual hearings have been marred by technical glitches and courts have been reluctant to conduct substantive hearings in regular matters which do not involve any urgency. However, threats to our civil liberties have only increased during this period with the government using the pandemic as an excuse to launch surveillance projects such as the Aarogya Setu app and the BECIL tracking tool for healthcare workers and patients.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://internetfreedom.in/year-in-review-digital-rights-litigation/