The court will also continue with the virtual hearing and will have staggered physical hearings to avoid overcrowding in the courts, a notification from the Madras High Court Registrar General said.

"In order to meet the growing demand of physical court hearing and also keeping view the precautions that are required to be observed for avoiding any untoward happening, Hon'ble Administrative Commitee on serious consideration has decided to open physical court hearing partially," it said.

The Committee has decided to open physical hearing partially with six division benches at the Principal seat here and two at Madurai, "with a combination of physical court hearing and virtual court hearing with effect from September 7, 2020," it said.

Further, physical court hearings in three benches in the principal seat here will be pre-lunch sessions and the rest post-lunch "in order to avoid overcrowding," it added.

"The virtual court hearings will be alternatively conducted for the rest of the day. Thus, the Benches would be functioning for half a day through physical court hearing and for the next half a day through virtual court hearing," so as to facilitate lawyers who opt for both types, it said.

This will be adopted on a trial basis to assess the feasibility of running physical courts.

"In respect of Madurai Bench, the Hon'ble

Administrative judge will accordingly make appropriate arrangements," the notification added.