The four-week-long annual summer vacation for all courts for 2020 has been cancelled in view of the loss of regular working days because of the COVID-19 lockdown.
This decision was taken at a full court meeting of the High Court on April 13, said a notification issued on Thursday.
As per the High Court’s calender, summer vacation is from April 27 to May 23. During these four weeks, the number of court sitting days available is 19, excluding Sundays, Saturdays and other general holidays.
The High Court has already lost 15 regular court sitting days till April 17 owing to the lockdown imposed from March 23, as only one or two specially designated benches of the court are taking up hearings, that too on matters of extreme urgency through videoconferencing twice a week.
KSAT
Meanwhile, the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT), which has been completely closed since March 24, has now restricted its summer vacation to two weeks, from April 20 to May 2. The remaining period, from May 3 to 15, has been notified as working days, excluding general holidays.
Extremely urgent matters can be filed through electronic mode by sending an email to efileksat@gmail.com, and the chairperson of the tribunal will decide on accepting the matter for hearing during the vacation period by the Bengaluru bench, as there will not be sittings of the Belagavi and Kalaburagi benches. Judicial member R.B. Sathyanaraya will hold a hearing of the Kalaburagi bench from May 4.
