The top seven judges of the Madras High Court have decided to start conducting physical hearing of cases in the principal seat of the High Court in Chennai as well as at the Madurai Bench as a pilot measure for two weeks from September 7.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justices Vineet Kothari, R. Subbiah, M. Sathyanarayanan, N. Kirubakaran, M.M. Sundresh and T.S. Sivagnanam will begin hearing cases in open court with all safety measures in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The decision was taken at a meeting of the Administrative Committee, comprising the top seven judges, on Saturday.
According to sources, almost all members of the committee were in favour of the decision to resume physical hearing of the cases on a pilot basis.
Hence, it was decided that six Division Benches led by them in the principal seat will begin sitting in the open court from September 7. Three Division Benches will conduct physical hearing in the forenoon session and virtual hearing in the afternoon.
The other three Division Benches will hear cases through video conference in the forenoon and sit in the open court in the afternoon session. The arrangement had been made to reduce crowding on the court campus and to enable lawyers to maintain physical distance.
Waiting hall for lawyers
Individual Division Benches will take a call on the cases that require a hearing in the open court and the ones which can be heard virtually, depending upon the requests made by lawyers and their willingness to get the cases listed before open courts.
It has also been decided to allocate waiting halls for the lawyers and let them inside court halls only as and when their cases are to be taken up for hearing.
Measures will also be put in place to maintain distance between the lawyers, the judges and the court staff all the time.
Since Justice Sathyanarayanan is the administrative judge of the Madurai Bench now, he will lead the Bench there.
Similarly, a Division Bench led by Justice K. Kalyanasundaram will also hold physical hearing in Madurai, where only two Division Benches function.
All other judges who sit single will continue to hear cases only through the video conference facility until a further decision is taken on resuming physical functioning on a full scale after discussing the issue in the Full Court (a body comprising all judges).
The High Court was closed down completely after the nationwide lockdown in March this year. Subsequently, when it resumed its functions, some of its judges and court staff tested positive for COVID-19 forcing it to decide upon holding only virtual hearings.
