[COVID-19] Bombay High Court switches to virtual hearings; physical hearing only for "extremely urgent" criminal matters

In view of spike in COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court has decided to switch to virtual and hybrid mode of hearing cases except for criminal cases of extreme urgency.

Fresh notifications effective from April 7, 2021 were issued listing out the benches which will be sitting physically, through video conference and hybrid format.

The notification came after the administrative committee took a call on Monday that criminal matters will be heard physically at the Principal Bench, while civil matters will be heard virtually.

The twenty-five benches at the principal seat will be hearing only extremely urgent matters in the following formats.

1. Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni

2. Bench of Justices PB Varale and SP Tavade

3. Bench of Justices SS Jadhav and NR Borkar

Six Division Benches and eight judges sitting singly will hear extreme urgent matters pertaining to the civil-side jurisdiction through video conference. They are

1. Bench of Justices AA Sayed and Madhav Jamdar

2. Bench of Justices KK Tated and RI Chagla

3. Bench led by Justice SJ Kathawalla

4. Bench of Justices RD Dhaka and VG Bisht

5. Bench of Justices SP Deshmukh and Abhay Ahuja

6. Bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and CV Bhadang

7. Justice SC Gupte

8. Justice KR Shriram

9. Justice GS Patel

10. Justice BP Colabawalla

11. Justice AK Menon

12. Justice Anuja Prabhudessai

13. Justice MS Karnik

14. Justice PK Chavan

For criminal side matters, Division Bench of Justices SS Shinde and Manish Pitale will hear matters through VC and six judges sitting singly will continue with the physical hearing of cases which are of extreme urgency. They are:

1. Justice Revati Mohite Dere

2. Justice AS Gadkari

3. Justice PD Naik

4. Justice SK Shinde

5. Justice Bharati Dangre

6. Justice Sarang Kotwal

In view of rising COVID cases, the Bombay High Court also declared a holiday from April 15 to 17, 2021. The Court had already declared holidays from April 11 to 14, 2021.

[Read Notifications]