The Ju­di­cia­ry is de­fend­ing and stand­ing by its pol­i­cy on vir­tu­al hear­ings in crim­i­nal mat­ters, stress­ing that peo­ple charged with of­fences must ap­pear on the same day via video link with­out be­ing trans­port­ed to a cour­t­house.

It al­so dis­missed crit­i­cisms that hav­ing vir­tu­al hear­ings at po­lice sta­tions makes them vir­tu­al cour­t­hous­es.

“This arrange­ment does not con­vert po­lice sta­tions in­to court­rooms – it just puts the ac­cused in front of a com­put­er for a vir­tu­al ap­pear­ance,” the Ju­di­cia­ry clar­i­fied in a state­ment.