High Court Bench to resume staggered open court functioning from tomorrow

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court will resume staggered open court functioning from June 1. Guidelines have been issued to advocates and court staff to follow, in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wearing masks has been made compulsory.

According to the notification issued by the court, the open court proceedings will be held from 10.30 a.m to 1.30 p.m and hearing of cases by video conferencing will be held at the request of the counsel from 2.30 p.m to 4.45 p.m.

Cases to be listed for hearing in the Open Court will be decided by the Judges concerned and the cause list hosted on the website. The seating arrangement in court halls will be in compliance with physical distancing norms and regulated by the court. Advocates have been asked not to wear coats/gowns/robes and instead wear plain white shirts and white pants/black pants/white salwar kameez/white sari with plain white neckband. Apart from physical filing, the procedure of e-mail filing will continue till further orders.

Filing of cases by parties-in-person and hearing of those cases will be only by e-mail and video conferencing respectively. Litigants and advocate clerks have not been permitted to accompany advocates.

For the sake of effective control of entry and exit, only the main entrance, the Mahatma

Gandhi Statue entrance will be kept open and senior advocates and advocates, whose cases are listed, will alone be permitted to enter the High Court.

Advocates were requested to subject themselves to sanitisation by the CISF personnel at the main entrance and by Court Attendants before entering court halls. Vehicles must be parked only in the parking area inside the High Court.

Intra-Court appeals - viz writ appeals - can be filed using the order hosted in the website. Requests for urgent motion shall be made by e-mail to the Registrar (Judicial), Madurai Bench, through email ID thamilj1968@gmail.com , who, in turn, will place the matter before the judge dealing with the portfolio in question and the matter will be listed subject to the convenience of the judge.

The Bar Associations and law chambers will not be opened until further orders. However, on specific requests made to the Registrar (Administration) by e-mail admnchambers@gmail.com , the law chambers concerned will be opened between 10.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. on all working days for the advocates to take their papers.