The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday notified that physical hearing of petitions will be held only if both the parties give consent, even as the Bar Association said it will not take part in physical functioning of the court, claiming that it would compromise the safety of the lawyers in Covid-19 time.
The high court administration said that hearing through video conference will continue as earlier, which the Bar Association has agreed to.
The Cause List for June 17 said that "matters will be taken up through physical hearing only when both the parties are consented to."
The Calcutta High Court had on June 13 decided to hold physical and video conference hearings simultaneously for the
benefit of lawyers who reside in districts and are finding it difficult to reach the court in absence of suburban train
services and also those who are not adept at online hearing.
A notification was issued on Saturday after a meeting of the representatives of the three wings of the Bar of the high court with Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan.
At the meeting, lawyers emphasised that a number of them come from suburbs and may not be able to attend court in physical form till the suburban train services are resumed.
The high court reopened its doors for physical hearing of cases on June 11 after a gap of over two and a half months since normal functioning was stopped when the lockdown was imposed.
Most lawyers, however, stayed away from attending the court for physical hearing following a decision by the Calcutta High Court Bar Association not to attend proceedings.
The Executive Committee of the High Court Bar Association took a resolution on Monday that its members will not participate in physical functioning of matters.
"Our members shall be participating in virtual hearing of all matters and electronic filing of all petitions before
the High Court at Calcutta between June 17 and July 3," the resolution said.
The president and the vice-president of the Bar Association could not participate in the executive committee meeting owing to health reasons, the resolution noted.
The resolution said that the number of Covid-19 cases is increasing at an alarming rate and the Supreme Court has decided to continue the virtual court system.
It also said that a majority of the association's members cannot reach the high court from the districts where they reside owing to lack of public transport.
"Hybrid hearings will also be permissible, in the sense that one or more parties may be represented by video-link and one or more parties may be represented in physical manner," the HC notification on Saturday said.
It said that litigants and advocates may attend hearings in physical form or in virtual form as may be convenient.
But Monday's resolution of the Bar Association objected to hybrid hearings, holding that equal opportunity of hearing has to be available to lawyers representing a case.
"It is further resolved that the High Court publish suitable notification enabling 100 per cent virtual court hearings and E-filing for all matters till the pandemic situation is normalised," the resolution said.
Comments
0 comment