[COVID-19] Karnataka High Court to effect service of notice to Govt departments, statutory bodies through email; asks State to submit email ids

In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Karnataka High Court has proposed to effect service of notice in writ petitions, writ appeals and other similar cases to various departments of the Central and State governments, boards, and corporations, and other statutory bodies, by way of email. .A Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj, therefore, directed the State government to submit a list of email IDs of various departments of the State, boards and statutory bodies to the Registrar of the court. “In the Writ Petitions and Writ Appeals filed in the High Court as well as in other similar cases, an issue of service of notice to the State Government, the Central Government, statutory bodies like BBMP, BDA, and various statutory corporations can be taken care of by issuing directions to accept service by email. The learned Additional Advocate General submits that he will file a list of such entities along with their addresses and email-Ids with the Court Officer by 27th May 2021. The Registrar (Judicial) will issue notice at respective email Ids' of those entities calling upon them to remain represented before the Court on 2nd June 2021,” the Court ordered. .That apart, the Court further extended the time-bound schedule fixed for district and trial courts to dispose of cases, by three months."In many civil and criminal cases, the High Court of Karnataka has issued directions to the District and Trial Courts in the State for disposal of cases in time bound manner. Considering the Standard Operating Procedure issued by the High Court, the District and Trial Courts will find it difficult to meet the deadline fixed by this Court. We, therefore, direct that wherever this Court has issued directions to the District and Trial Courts in the State to dispose of the cases within a specified time schedule and where time has expired or is likely to expire on or before 30th June 2021, for the time being, the time for disposal of cases stands extended by a period of three months from today. This direction will not apply to bail petitions.".The High Court was hearing a case registered suo motu, to monitor legal and technical issues likely to arise after trial courts resumed functioning post COVID-19 lockdown, last year. .In all cases other than criminal cases covered by the order dated May 12, filed from 19 April 2021 till 30th June 2021, the High Court waived all the office objections except the following:.a) Objection regarding non-payment of Court fee or insufficient payment of Court fee;b) Objection regarding bar of limitation;c) Objection regarding maintainability of the proceedings;d) Objection regarding failure to furnish the second set of papers (only in case of Division Bench matters);e) Objection regarding non-compliance with Rule 3A of Chapter 10 of the High Court of Karnataka Rules, 1959;f) Objection regarding non-compliance with the Circular dated 20th July 2019 in Criminal Petitions about the failure to serve the petitions in advance to the office of the State Public Prosecutor;g) Objection regarding failure to annex the copies of impugned judgment/orders/ impugned notifications/ impugned endorsements/ impugned communications.."All the cases where the objections raised are not covered by any of the seven objections enlisted above shall be registered for placing the same before the Court. We, however, make it clear that this order will not preclude the concerned Courts hearing the matters from directing the rectification of any specific objection which goes to the root of the matter and which prevents the Court from hearing the cases on merits," the Court added. .The Bench further clarified that if any of the objections that are raised fall in the category of seven objections enlisted above, the cases will not be registered unless an order of posting before the Court is passed by the Court or unless the objections are rectified..The matter will be next heard on June 2.