After having decided to continue functioning through virtual mode for a few more weeks due to the lockdown, The Madras High Court on Saturday informed lawyers that separate counters and drop boxes will be installed on the court campus from Monday for filing hard copies of case papers besides forwarding them to the Registry by e-mail.
The arrangement has been made since many judges insist on hard copies. The Registry stated that the counters would function from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on all working days.
Case papers should be tied along with filing slips and dropped into the boxes after obtaining due acknowledgement on one of the copies of the filing slip from the personnel manning the counters. “The case papers so filed will be taken up for further course of action only after a day of quarantine in order to give sufficient time for the COVID-19 virus to become extinct. No hard copies/case papers shall be returned physically under any circumstances during this lockdown period or till the normal case filing is restored, except with the leave of the honourable court.
“Attendees to the filing counter shall adhere to all necessary guidelines issued by the Government of India and Government of Tamil Nadu on the restrictions to prevent COVID-19 viral infection and also ensure that the bearer of the case papers shall not be the resident of a hot spot area/containment zone notified by the local body concerned,” the notification read.
