The Madhya Pradesh High Court has decided to switched to a hybrid model of hearing, having an option to the advocates and party-in-person to appear either physical or virtually in urgent matters.
The High Court has issued Standard Operating Procedure which will be effective from Monday onwards at Principal Seat Jabalpur and Benches at Indore and Gwalior. There will be specified entry and exit gates for all advocates as notified by the respective benches. The procedures require all appearing advocates to be vaccinated at least with the first dose of vaccination.
The notification notifies that “Keeping in view the present situation of the Covid-19 Pandemic in the State of Madhya Pradesh, Hon'ble the Chief Justice, High Court of Madhya Pradesh, upon consideration of the recommendations of the Hon'ble Special Committee of this High Court and after due deliberations with the Advocate General of the State of M.P., representatives of State Bar Council of M.P., Senior Advocates Council and High Court Bar Associations, Jabalpur, Indore & Gwalior, has been pleased to issue this Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P.) for the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Principal Seat Jabalpur and its Benches at Indore & Gwalior.”
This Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P.) will be in supersession of earlier Standard Operating Procedure (S.O.P) dated 24/04/2021 and will come into force w.e.f. 09/08/2021 (Monday), as under:-
- Hearing of the cases, in which applications for urgent hearing are filed, will commence at Principal Seat Jabalpur and Benches at Indore and Gwalior, through Hybrid mode (Physical & Virtual). Learned Advocates / Parties-in-person, regardless of age, can appear through Physical or Virtual mode as per their own choice. In this regard, no prior option is required to be given by the Advocates / Parties-inperson. Link of all listed Cases will be sent, in advance, to all the Advocates / Parties-in-person. They can also generate the link from the dash board of e-cause list.
- Learned Advocates / Parties-in-person, who are above 60 years of age and all those Advocates / Parties-in-person having co-morbidities are requested to appear only through virtual mode.
- In cases of Final Hearing, it would be open for the Learned Advocates to jointly request the Bench concerned for taking up such matter by mode of physical hearing
- Office of the Advocate General shall ensure smooth functioning of Hybrid system of Physical/Virtual hearing of the Cases by deputing adequate number of government advocates/panel lawyers in the Courts.
- For Benches at Indore and Gwalior, facility of removal of defaults, physically, from the counters of presentation centre or any other suitable place, may be notified separately as per the orders of Hon'ble the Administrative Judge of the Bench.
- It shall be necessary for Advocates / Parties-in-person entering the Court premises to have themselves vaccinated / inoculated by atleast first dose of vaccination.
Adherence to all the Guidelines/Instructions, such as maintaining social distancing, wearing of mask, proper sanitization etc., issued time to time by the Central Government /State Government and High Court of M.P., regarding prevention from Coronavirus (Covid-19), will be strictly followed by all concerned.
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