Kerala High Court Advocates Association writes to Chief Justice for resumption of physical hearing from November 1

The Kerala High Court Advocates' Association (KHCAA) has written to the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court requesting that physical hearings at the High Court and all subordinate courts in the State be resumed from November 1, 2021.In its letter addressed to Chief Justice S Manikumar, the KHCAA stated that its Executive Committee resolved to submit this request since the complete lack of physical sitting in courts would affect the strength of the legal system itself."This bar believes that even while waging a relentless war against Covid-19 pandemic, we cannot allow the stalemate in part to continue for long in the matter of the physical full functioning of our Courts as the present situation is certain to seriously affect the strength and credibility of the legal system itself", the letter said..The KHCAA has, accordingly, requested that necessary steps be taken to re-start normal physical sitting at all the courts in the state, including the High Court..Recently, the Supreme Court had decided that all cases listed on Wednesdays and Thursdays (non-miscellaneous days) will compulsorily require physical presence of the lawyers and will be heard only in court rooms. Pursuant to that, the top court has been sitting physically on Wednesdays and Thursdays since October 20..However, on October 22, the top court amended its SOP to state that if the number of lawyers who are to appear in any case on physical hearing days exceeds the court room capacity, such case can be heard through video conference or hybrid mode..Several courts across the country have recently adopted a hybrid mode of hearing.While the Madhya Pradesh High Court decided to revert to physical hearings exclusively, an application has been filed in the Supreme Court challenging the decision and seeking directions to continue hybrid hearings in the Court.A plea is also pending before the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the Uttarakhand and Gujarat High Courts to revert to physical hearings..[Read Letter]