The High Court of Bombay has modified SOP dated 6th January 2022, in order to reduce the physical presence of lawyers and litigants due to the prevailing situation of COVID-19.
The notification isseud by the High Court has notified that "It is hereby notified that for the information of the Advocates and the parties appearing-in-person that the Hon’ble the Chief Justice has been pleased to issue the following Standard Operating Procedure for hearing the matters through Virtual mode at the High Court of Judicature at Bombay, Nagpur Bench with effect from Monday, 17th January 2022 till 28th January 2022".
The Modified SOP mentions following points which are as follows:
1) The hearing of the matters in all Courts will be through Video Conferencing only till 28th January 2022 and the Courts will take up the matters as per judicial assignment with preference to urgent matters. The Court timing shall be 11.00 a.m. to 02.00 p.m. The timing of the Registry shall be 10.30 am to 3.00 pm.
2) The Advocates / Parties-in-person shall mention their matter through Praecipe by sending it on the designated email address of the concerned Court as per Annexure-A. They shall serve copy of the Praecipe to the other side in advance. Mentioning of matters for adjournment through VC mode will be allowed. Such Advocates should inform the Court Sheristedar before the Court Procedings commence. The Court Sheristedar will first call out such matters serially to enable such Advocates to mention.
3) Mentioning for circulation of the matter will be by way of sending praecipe on designated email address as per Annexure-A only. Mentioning for circulation of the matter shall be allowed through virtual mode in urgent cases only with permission of the concerned Bench. It is left to each individual Bench to settle it’s board considering the priority in hearing to be given to any particular matter.
4) All Praecipes should be sent 48 hours (excluding holidays & Counting the time starting from 12 noon) in advance before proposed listing of the matter. Praecipes received after stipulated time will not be responded to or will not be placed before the Hon’ble Judge. If, the matter is not listed, it be deemed that the Bench has declined circulation of the matter.
5) No Praecipe without mentioning number of the matter will be entertained.
6) Praecipes sent to the email IDs other than the one mentioned against the category of matter will not be considered.
7) In the Praecipe itself, Advocates shall mention names of maximum three persons with their email ids who would attend the hearing through virtual mode. Similarly, respondents/defendants seeking to enter appearance shall intimate email ids of maximum three persons who would attend the hearing. Please note that only those persons whose email address are intimated to the Registry would be allowed to attend the hearing through virtual mode.
8) Advocates shall mention their Bar Council enrollment/registration number and Phone number and email-ID in the Praecipe.
9) If the Hon’ble Judge allows the Praecipe, the Registry shall communicate the date and time slot for hearing through virtual mode and shall share the link and PIN of the Video Conference Room with the Advocates concerned. The link and PIN shall be used only for Video Conference of that particular case at the allotted time.
10) In case of fresh matter, the Advocate shall first file the matter, get stamp/lodging number and then move the Praecipe by mentioning said stamp/lodging number on it and setting out the urgency.
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