Orissa HC extends suspension of normal functioning till Aug 21

CUTTACK: IN view of the continuing threat of Covid-19, the Orissa High Court kept its normal functioning suspended while restricting hearings to extremely urgent matters. The Registrar General on Sunday notified that pursuant to the resolution of the Full Court of the HC, normal functioning of the Court shall continue to remain suspended till August 21.

During the period, the HC shall have restricted functioning with limited numbe r of judges by virtual mode as per the roaster assigned by the Chief Justice and take up only extremely urgent matters. Accordingly, the courts of four Single Judge benches and two Division benches, one of them with the Chief Justice, were assigned 437 cases including 210 bail matters for hearing through video conferencing in the weekly list on Monday.

On April 9, the High Court had introduced e-filing facility that enabled litigants to file cases electronically. The advocates and litigants were also allowed to appear through video conferencing system installed on the court premises after making specific request while submitting memo for listing. Breaking off from previous practice on Monday, the Benches functioned through video conference allowing counsels to appear only from remote locations like residence or office.

The provision of hearing counsels appearing in person through video conferencing system installed on the HC premises w a s discontinued. Howeve r, the Court allowed filing of new cases only by e-filing or e-mail. Filing of cases was also allowed through drop box kept on the court premises from 10 am to 1 pm. An order issued by Deputy Registrar (Judicial) said, “If a case is filed through drop box on the ground of urgency, a memo containing the nature of urgency has to be attached with the file. All concerned are requested to avoid congregation while submitting files in the drop box.”