All T.N. courts to function notwithstanding Section 144

Judicial work to be restricted to extremely urgent cases

24/03/2020, MOHAMED IMRANULLAH S.,CHENNAI

The Madras High Court on Monday decided that its principal seat in Chennai, a Bench in Madurai as well as all trial courts across the State will continue to function despite the proposed imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure from 6 p.m. on Tuesday to contain the spread of COVID-19.

The decision was taken by the Administrative Committee, comprising Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justices Vineet Kothari, R. Subbiah, M. Sathyanarayanan, N. Kirubakaran, M.M. Sundresh and T.S. Sivagnanam.

It was, however, made clear that the proceedings shall be restricted to extremely urgent cases for the next three weeks.

According to a circular issued by Registrar General (R-G) C. Kumarappan, the High Court shall function with two Division Benches (one for hearing civil cases and the other for criminal cases) and five Single Benches (three on the criminal side and two on the civil side) from Tuesday, and they would take up cases that require immediate attention.

A request was made to the lawyers to exercise their discretion and restrict filing of cases as far as possible. They were also asked not to operate from the chambers allotted to them inside the High Court campus and desist from inviting their clients to the court campus unless and otherwise the court concerned had ordered for their appearance in connection with a case.

Impressing upon the need for curtailing the presence of the court staff too, the Administrative Committee directed the R-G to take a call on rotating the employees on need basis. “There shall be an exception with regard to the protocol and maintenance staff who are required to be present on account of the nature of the duties that they have to essentially perform,” it added.

Further, it was ordered that personal secretaries, drivers, residential assistants, office assistants and other personal staff attached to individual judges should make themselves available. A similar arrangement was ordered to be put in place in the Madurai Bench too.

As far as the functioning of subordinate courts in the State was concerned, the R-G issued a separate circular stating that they should also confine their functioning to extremely urgent cases and restrict the number of lawyers and litigants in the courts. The Principal District Judges across Tamil Nadu and the Chief Judge of Puducherry were instructed to ensure strict compliance.

“Courts may endeavour to grant general adjournments for a period of three weeks unless there is an extremely urgent matter to be taken up on the request of the counsel subject to the discretion of the court,” the circular read.

The Principal District Judges were also asked to ensure minimum presence of court staff. “All subordinate courts are put on guard that their activities are likely to be viewed and monitored through video conferencing by the High Court,” the circular concluded.

Staff disappointed

Several employees of the Madras High Court expressed disappointment over its decision to continue the functioning of all courts across the State despite a representation made by Tamil Nadu Advocate Association (TNAA), led by senior counsel S. Prabakaran, to suspend the court proceedings until the threat of COVID-19 abates.