In a further drastic reduction of benches & court hours as preventive action in view of the coronavirus pandemic & the lockdown situation in the state, Bombay HC on Monday notified that only one bench each would preside for only two hours now on Mar 26 & Mar 30. This would be across all High Court benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad & the HC at Goa.
The chief justice of Bombay HC BP Dharmadhikari after taking stock of the seriousness of the situation on Monday had the notice issued. The bench would comprise only a single judge. The matters to be brought before the court on the next two dates have to be only of the extremely urgent nature. The last notice was issued by the High Court last week on Mar 19 where it had said the court would preside with limited seven benches including division benches for urgent matters only twice a week for two hours.
The change is that now that only two judges would preside for both the dates. Justice SS Shinde for all criminal matters & Justice KK Tated for all civil matters will preside on Thursday & next Monday in Bombay High Court principle bench. In the Nagpur bench of the HC, it will be Justice SB Shukre for all civil & Justice RB Deo for all criminal matters while in Aurangabad bench the Chief Justice has nominated Justices SV Gangapurwala for civil & T V Nalawade for all criminal matters & in Goa Justice M S Sonak will preside.
Bombay Bar Association president Milind Sathe said on Monday, "The High Court decision to practically shut down is a good call & a welcome decision as the number of visitors to court needs to be restricted if the other measures adopted by the state are to succeed."
Earlier on Mar 14, then Bombay HC acting chief justice BP Dharmadhikari on Saturday directed that court hearing be restricted to only matters of urgency for a week starting Monday, March 16 but all courts were to function. This was taken as a preventive measure against spread of corona virus in view of it being declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The High Court had On Mar 14 held its first special meeting on a Saturday soon after the severity was first acknowledged & attended by the ACJ, top two Justices A A Sayed & S S Shinde along with principal secretary Aniruddha Chandekar & Registrar General S B Agrawal to decide on what safety moves to adopt.
The court had then issued restricted entry to court to urgent hearing & only one litigant per matter where necessary.
The High Court direction that, "The Advocates, litigants & parties in persons may mention their matters showing the urgency before the concerned courts & upon satisfaction about the urgency, the court shall hear such matters. CMIS dates would be given to the rest of the matters. Orders of Ad-interim & interim relief subsisting in the matter shall continue to operate," will continue.
The High Court had also earlier said, that it had "appealed to all the Bar associations & the Advocates that they shall endeavor to restrict the entry of the litigants in the Court & only in cases where the presence is unavoidable, one person may be called."
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