The Madras High Court administration is expecting the Centre to relax the nationwide lockdown in the future, despite the rising number of COVID-19 patients. It has called for a meeting with top judicial officers across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry on Tuesday to discuss the modalities for resuming court work in a phased manner.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justices Vineet Kothari, R. Subbiah, M. Sathyanarayanan, N. Kirubakaran, M.M. Sundresh and T.S. Sivagnanam have decided to hold a meeting, through video-conference, with PDJs (Principal District Judges) in all districts of the State, the Principal Judge of the city civil court in Chennai and the Chief Judge of Puducherry.
The agenda of the meet is to elicit ideas from judicial officers and ascertain their views. In a circular to PDJs, Registrar General C. Kumarappan requested them to come up with suggestions on how to resume the functioning of courts, and at the same time, avoid unnecessary rush in court complexes through reduced footfall.
Suggestions invited
The circular read: “The lockdown announced by the Central Government may be relaxed in the future, and keeping that in view, the resumption of subordinate courts functioning will have to be strategically planned, maybe in a phased manner, as the impending threat of the spread of COVID-19, even though had decreased earlier, has reportedly shown signs of escalation.”
“All PDJs, the Principal Judge of the city civil court in Chennai and the Chief Judge of Puducherry may come forward with suitable suggestions, as to how to gradually resume the functioning of courts...the suggestions may also include indications as to the measure and the amount of help viz., health, sanitation or any other ancillary facilities, that may be required from the administration as well,” the circular added.
