Rising cases prompts HC to put hearing through video-con on hold

Cuttack: In view of the continuing threat of the spread of Covid-19, the Orissa high court on Monday discontinued hearing through a video-conference system installed on the court premises. Counsels will now have to appear only from their office or residence.
Since the functioning of the high court was suspended (March 25 to April 15) owing to the lockdown, hearing on urgent matters had been taken up so far through the video-conference system installed on the premises of the court.
In view of the exigency caused by Covid-19, the Orissa high court had introduced e-filing facility on April 9. The facility that enabled litigants to file cases electronically was introduced under the Orissa High Court e-filing and Video Conferencing Scheme 2020.
The advocate and litigants were also allowed to appear through a video-conferencing system installed on the court premises after making specific requests in that regard while submitting memos for listing.
The court also restricted the filing of new cases to only by e-filing or email, discontinued receiving of petitions at its filing counter between 10am and 1pm from Monday.
It, however, allowed filing of cases through a drop box kept on the court premises from 10am to 1pm in the event of urgency, if any difficulty is faced in e-filing mode/email mode.
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, the order issued by the registry said. “All concerned are requested to avoid congregation while submitting files in the drop box and to strictly maintain social distancing,” it added.
The registrar general had on Sunday notified that the normal functioning of the high court shall continue to remain suspended till August 21.
However, during this period the high court shall have restricted functioning by virtual mode with limited number of judges as per the roster assigned by the Chief Justice and take up only extremely urgent matters.
In another office order, the deputy registrar (judicial) said, “The benches will function through video-conferencing and counsels may appear only from remote locations like residence/offices, etc. There shall be no provision on the court premises to facilitate appearance to learned counsel/ parties in person owing to the lockdown restrictions.”
Accordingly, the high court on Monday listed over 430 cases for hearing through video-conference. More than 210 bail matters along with some criminal appeals and writ petitions found place in the weekly list before the courts of four single-judge benches and two division benches, one of them having the Chief Justice.