COVID-19: Madras High Court switches back to virtual hearing of cases

On account of the surge in cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19, the Madras High Court on Sunday issued a notification suspending physical and hybrid modes of hearing from January 3..All hearings before the High Court as well as subordinate courts in the State will be conducted virtually until further orders, the notification stated..The High Court has called for a temporary suspension of its previous notification that provided for complete resumption of physical hearings from January 3."Filing of case papers, copy applications, returning/representing the case papers and receiving the order copies in emergent matters alone will be through e-mail and in exceptional cases, it shall be through the respective counters/drop boxes provided for the said purpose, subject to strict adherence to Covid-19 safety protocol," the notification stated..Last year, on December 27, the Madras High Court had issued a notification deciding to revert to full physical functioning from January 3, 2022. Prior to that, on November 9, the High Court had also lifted the restrictions on litigants and clerks entering the court premises..The Supreme Court and various High Courts have already switched to virtual or hybrid modes of hearing in view of the spike in Omicron cases.In view of the rise in cases in Mumbai, the Bombay High Court decided to hear matters through hybrid mode with effect from January 4, 2022 until further orders.The Calcutta High Court decided to hear cases through virtual mode only from January 3, 2022.On December 30, the Delhi High Court had decided to revert to full virtual hearing from January 3 to January 15, 2022 in view of the spurt in COVID-19 cases and the consequent 'yellow alert' declared by the government in the national capital. The Allahabad High Court has taken up similar measures as well..[Read Notification]