Bombay High Court decides to commence partial physical hearing from August 2

The administrative committee of the Bombay High Court has decided to commence partial physical hearing of cases from August 2, 2021 in view of the improving COVID-19 situation in the State. .The decision was taken at a meeting of the administrative committee held on Tuesday, attended by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta, other judges and all bar associations of the High Court..State government officials along with Iqbal Singh Chahal, the Municipal Commissioner of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation briefed the members of the associations. They stated that due to increase in number of vaccinations and reduction in number of positive cases detected per day, physical functioning of courts could commence. .Accordingly, the following decisions were taken for the Principal Seat at Bombay:Each Bench shall sit on 4 days (as opposed to earlier 3 days) and out of the 4 days, shall work physically on 3 days and virtually for 1 day;Steps will be taken to implement fully hybrid system in all court rooms and existing hybrid courts will continue to operate on hybrid basis;Circulation of matters shall be via precipie sent by emails for the time being. Mentioning on virtual platform will be permitted;Litigants will be permitted inside court premises only if their presence is required by the Court..The Benches at Nagpur, Aurangabad and High Court at Goa will commence with complete physical hearing of cases. .The instructions and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the same shall be released in a couple of days. .Regarding permitting lawyers and clerks/ staff to travel by local trains, the Central and State governments assured that they would work out the modalities for issuance of monthly pass to permit travel by train only for persons who are fully vaccinated, that is for people who have been vaccinated with 2 jabs. .The Committee had previously decided to continue hearing cases via video conference till end of July, 2021 in view of the COVID-19 situation..[COVID-19] Bombay High Court to continue with virtual hearings, will sit on alternate Saturdays to clear backlog of cases.The Bombay High Court had decided to revert to virtual and hybrid mode of hearing cases from April 7 except for criminal cases of extreme urgency effective. This was after the second wave of pandemic hit.Virtual hearing continued till May 7 although physical filing of cases were permitted.Even during vacation, the Court was hearing matters through video conference and such an arrangement was scheduled to continue till June 11 which was later extended.