Coronavirus Pandemic: Bombay HC will not hold full strength hearings in near future

Bombay HC on Monday said that full strength in-court hearings will not happen in the near future. This is because of the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown restrictions. A meeting was held on Monday to review the situation in the view of extended lockdown by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta. Three senior-most judges forming the administrative committee of the HC, Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, and representatives of Bar associations were present in the meeting.

A Bar association member stated that Chief Justice Datta was firm on the decision to not open physical court in the near future. He further added that all the administrative judges were of the view that physical courts should not be held in view of the present situation. 

Meanwhile, responding to the demands for holding hearing via video-conference, the judges said that for every bench, an additional staff of six-seven persons is required. However, looking at the situation, it is not possible. Although, there will be two division benches and three single benches hearing urgent matters.

A circular issued by Bombay HC said that the court will conduct hearing via video conference as per ongoing arrangement on May 22, 26, 29, and June 2.

Previously, two separate sets of senior counsels had written to CJ Datta urging him to consider the court function with full strength with reasonable safety precautions and social distancing norms to ensure normalcy in a phased manner.

The letter submitted by senior advocates Vijay Thorat, Prasad K Dakhephalkar, Vineet Naik, AV Anturkar, Prasad Dani, Atul Damle, Vishwajeet Sawant said that it is unlikely that COVID-19 will be eradicated in near future and so, one will have to accept ‘new normal’ and resume transactions with necessary restrictions.

The second letter by senior advocates Iqbal Chagla, Janak Dwarkadas, Fredun E De Vire, Navroz Seervai, Darius Khambata and M P Bharucha urged the High Court to explore ways to start sitting at full strength again. They argued that the court may not be able to deal with the number of pending cases while it continues to conduct hearings in a restricted manner.

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