Acceding to a request made by the State government to reduce the footfalls in the Madras High Court building as part of the measures to contain the second wave of COVID-19, the court administration on Thursday decided that it shall conduct its proceedings only through virtual mode to the extent possible. It clarified that government lawyers alone would be allowed to appear in person for hearing of bail petitions and other urgent cases.
The decisions were taken by the court’s Administrative Committee, comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justices R. Subbiah, M. Sathyanarayanan, N. Kirubakaran, M.M. Sundresh, T.S. Sivagnanam and M. Duraiswamy.
A subsequent official notification issued by Registrar General P. Dhanabal stated that all lawyers’ chambers, situated on the High Court campus, would remain closed from Saturday until further orders.
The libraries in all Bar associations would have to be closed and the restrictions would apply to the Madurai Bench of the High Court as well, the notification clarified. It stated that the restrictions would continue till April 23 and that the situation would be reviewed on April 22. Earlier, in the day, the Chief Justice wanted to know from Advocate General Vijay Narayan as to whether the government had come up with any advisory for public buildings.
In reply, the A-G said he would ask Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan to meet the Chief Justice and apprise him of the situation. The law officer also said that the second wave of COVID-19 was far worse than the first wave. He ruled out the possibility of second wave having become severe in Tamil Nadu solely because of the Assembly election and said the situation was worse in other States like Maharashtra and Delhi where there were no elections at all.
