What is the soft signal?
By giving the 'soft signal' the on-field umpire tells the TV umpire about what he feels about the dismissal and the onus is now on the third umpire to provide a conclusive evidence prove his decision wrong.
As per Hemant Buch, a sports broadcaster, the thought behind the soft-signal is that the standing umpires say
"We feel this is out, but why don't you have a look on TV and see if you find any reason for us to change our decision."
The field umpires take the judgement, based on what they saw with three-dimensional vision on the field and on their experience of judging what they see. It then boils down to the TV umpire to find a conclusive evidence to overturn the standing umpire's decision and if he fails to get one, then the on-field umpire's ruling prevails.
Why was Virat Kohli given out?
In Virat Kohli's case, the batsman was given out because the TV umpire - despite using the sophisticated cameras, using ultra-slow motion and capturing 300 frames per second - couldn't confirm if the Handscomb's palms were not below the ball when he completed the catch.
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Harsha Bhogle's explanation
Veteran commentator Harsha Bhogle in a series of tweets explained why it is tough for the TV umpire to judge close catches (3D action) like these using the 2D cameras.
"I know there will be a lot of debate on the Kohli dismissal but it is critical to note that the law says there must be conclusive evidence to overturn the on-field umpire's decision. Kohli thought it bounced but historically those have been given out. In such matters, we tend to see what we want to see. And I can understand therefore why Indian fans and Aussie fans would have completely different interpretations.
"The key was that the fingers were underneath the ball but there was a gap in the fingers.....And therefore the umpires had to take a call on that. The cameras couldn't tell you more. The bottom line is that technology in such matters is inconclusive and will always be inconclusive because we are seeing a 3-dimensional event in 2 dimensions. And so the verdict tend to go with the on-field umpire."
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More explanation from Harsha
"Last word from me. The reason the soft signal was introduced was that a lot of clean catches were being adjudged not out because the TV replays were inconclusive. To get over that, the soft signal became the benchmark which had to be conclusively overturned," he concluded.