Functioning of District Courts restricted up to large extent
*Special instructions issued for criminal, civil cases
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, Mar 23: In yet another major decision aimed at containing spread of Coronavirus, High Court has decided to hear urgent matters through video-conferencing or video call facility only and restricted the functioning of the District Courts up to large extent. Moreover, special directions have been issued vis-a-vis criminal and civil cases pending in the courts across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and Union Territory of Ladakh.
The decision has been taken keeping in view suspension of public transport and certain other restrictions imposed by the Government and in order to prevent spread of Coronavirus, said Registrar General of the High Court Sanjay Dhar.
“In case of urgent matters, the parties/counsels shall, after informing the opposite parties/counsels, send urgency memo through e-mail to the concerned Registrar Judicial by 3 pm of the previous day of the date on which the matter is listed and upon satisfaction about urgency, the court may hear such matter(s)”, the circular said, adding “on the date and time fixed, the case shall be heard through video-conferencing”.
In the event, video-conferencing is not available and in case of exceptional urgency, remote hearing of the cases may be conducted using video-call facility, Registrar General said, adding the Advocates/litigants shall telephonically mention their matters by providing title, number and stage of the matter; mobile number (associated with WhatsApp) of the litigants/advocate from which he intends to appear through video call; grounds of urgency through e-mail/WhatsApp message/SMS by 3 pm of the previous day of the date fixed and upon satisfaction about the urgency, the court may hear such matter through video-conferencing or video call.
It has been made clear that request for video-calls must include photograph of party and the lawyer and courts would save the request and whensoever possible download the same and keep it in the concerned file. Moreover, video-calling shall be initiated, terminated and controlled at the High Court end only.
Registrars Judicial of both the wings of the High Court have been told to arrange mobile handsets enabled with WhatsApp for video calls and notify the mobile numbers which shall be used for video calling on the official website of the High Court as well as to the concerned party. Registrar Computers will ensure that technical manpower is available for operationalizing the video calls”, reads the circular.
As per the instructions, the concerned advocate/litigant shall ensure that the room from where he/she intends to appear before the court through video calls is free from all sorts of disturbances like external noises and improper acoustics etc. As the proceedings through video call shall be conducted as judicial proceedings hence same courtesies and protocols will be observed as are being observed during the judicial proceedings in the court.
Keeping in view the current emergent situation and extreme need of social distancing wherever possible the counsel appearing in the matters will be allowed to join the video-conferencing from their own offices.
Stating that there will be prohibition to filing, the Registrar General said that the filing counter of both wings of the High Court shall remain closed for filing of all ordinary matters and Registrars Judicial of both wings shall not accept any ordinary filing of suits, appeals, petitions and applications etc till further orders.
“For the purposes of computation of limitation expiring during such period of filing prohibition, the same be deemed as expiring on the date of resumption of filing by the further orders of the court”, the circular said.
In order to decongest the sections/rooms of the Registry and on account of suspension of public transport by the Government coupled with imposition of certain other restrictions the officials working in the Registry shall be permitted to function in batches of minimal staff on rotation basis till March 31, 2020.
About the District Courts, the Registrar General said, “next date of hearing of cases listed up to March 31, 2020 in the courts shall be notified and uploaded on the website of the concerned District Court and the concerned Presiding Officer shall ensure uploading of the next date of hearing and other details of the cases”.
The Principal District and Sessions Judges shall nominate one or more District and Sessions Judges and on or more Civil Judges/Judicial Magistrates 1st Class as per the requirement on rotation basis to take up bail/remand and other extremely urgent civil and criminal matters.
The courts/Magistrates will use video-conferencing in the cases especially those relating to remand and in cases of exceptional urgency when video-conferencing is not available, remote hearing by use of video call method will be adopted. The Judicial Officers have been asked to arrange mobile handsets enabled with WhatsApp for the courts and notify the mobile numbers to be used for video-calling on the official website of the concerned District Court.
Other instructions on hearing of cases through video conferencing or video call and prohibition to ordinary filing of suits, appeals, petitions, complaints and applications shall remain the same as are in respect of both the wings of the High Court.
Issuing special directions for criminal cases, Registrar General said, “interim bail orders shall stand extended till the next date as notified on the website and personal appearance of accused persons shall stand exempted in all criminal trials till next date”, adding “the physical appearance of accused person(s) at the time of seeking his/their police or judicial remand to be exempted and appearance of accused wheresoever required shall be through video-conferencing”.
Similarly, special directions have been issued for civil cases whereby interim injunction orders, wherever in force shall stand extended till the next date as notified on the website and personal appearance of any party or person shall stand deferred till the next date.
High Court has reiterated that J&K Judicial Academy shall suspend all its training programmes till March 31, the lawyers chambers, canteens and the bar rooms will not remain operational till further orders and all the court officials, Presiding Officers of the courts would always remain available on call and would be deemed to be on duty and Lok Adalats, Legal Services Programmes and Mediations Programmes will not be held till further orders.
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