The Madras High Court Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee on Monday hinted that physical hearings may resume on a limited scale from Thursday. This came amid rising protests by advocate associations over stopping physical hearing and instead confining it to virtual and hybrid modes and closure of advocate chambers.
Chennai:
During the hearing on a plea moved by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) challenging the Constitutional validity of the decision to allow the government to prescribe classes of voters who could be allowed to vote through postal ballots, which was earlier marked for physical hearing, Chief Justice Banerjee said, “We will have physical hearings starting again, but only those where bench specifies that physical hearing is necessary. All other matters will be in the present virtual system.”
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Even as he noted that half of the lawyers’ chambers may be opened on Thursday and that physical hearings may resume by next Monday, the Chief Justice expressed concern that overcrowding in the court and the failure to adhere to COVID-19 distancing norms had contributed to the recent surge in cases.
Citing instances of several government advocates testing positive for coronavirus, including one who had spent three and a half hours in the court to argue a matter, he orally observed, “If cases surge, we will have to rollback. We have to take measures for everybody; not only for lawyers, our registry, our staff, you lawyers and then us.”
“First we must have life before we have other rights,” Chief Justice Banerjee added while adjourning the postal ballot case.
The High Court Registry had on Saturday ordered the cancellation of physical hearing and closure of advocates’ chambers. Protesting this, the Madras High Court Advocates’ Association (MHAA) and the Women Lawyers’ Association (WLA) boycotted courts on Monday.
