Bombay HC to restart physical hearings from next week
July 29, 2021 22:39
The Bombay high court will resume physical or in-person hearing of cases from August 2, the court's administrative committee decided on Thursday.
The committee, headed by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta, said that all benches of the high court will start hearing cases physically for three days and through video conference on one (scheduled) day during a week.
This hybrid system will be introduced in all court rooms as soon as possible so that lawyers and litigants who can not attend in-person hearings can participate through video link, it said.
All COVID-19 safety protocols will be implemented on court premises. Litigants will be permitted inside a court room only if their physical presence is genuinely needed, the committee said.
Circulation/filing of matters through email and online mentioning to seek an urgent hearing will be allowed, as of now.
The Central and state governments will work out the modalities to facilitate travel by lawyers and court staff who have received both doses of anti-COVID vaccines by local trains in Mumbai by issuing a monthly pass, the committee said.
All subordinate courts, except those in the districts of Raigad, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Sangli, Satara, Kolhapur, Pune, Ahmednagar, Beed, Nashik, and Palghar (which have higher-than-average positivity rate), will restart full-day functioning.
Following the COVID-19 outbreak, the HC and subordinate courts had reduced their working hours.
The high court initially heard only urgent matters online. Earlier this year, the number of benches hearing matters online was increased. -- PTI
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