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.
![In view of the aforesaid findings, both the Crl.A.Nos.898 and 829 of 2019 are without any merits and the Trial Court has imposed only the minimum sentence for both the offenses and therefore, the judgment of the Trial Court does not call for any interference. The Criminal Appeals stand dismissed. Consequently, Crl.M.P.No.7429 of 2020 is closed. 05.08.2022 Index : yes/no Speaking order/Non-speaking order kmk/grs D.BHARATHA CHAKRAVARTHY, J., kmk/grs To The Special Judge, I Additional Special Court for Exclusive Trial of Cases under NDPS Act, Chennai. The Public Prosecutor, High Court of Madras. The Deputy Superintendent of Police, NIB CID, Chennai. Pre-Delivery Judgment in Crl.A.Nos.829 and 898 of 2019 05.08.2022 [1] (2011) 11 SCC 653 [2] (2020) 2 SCC 290 [3] (2008) 16 SCC 417 [4] (2017) 13 SCC 636 [5] (2008) 4 SCC 54 [6] (2018) 17 SCC 627 [7] (2020) 10 SCC 120](https://www.sekarreporter.com/wp-content/themes/hueman/assets/front/img/thumb-medium-empty.png)