Aryan Grover
The Madras High Court’s Administrative Committee, comprising of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee, Justice R. Subbaiah, Justice M. Sathyanarayanan, Justice N. Kirubakaran, Justice M.M. Sundresh, Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice M. Duraiswamy, has decided that the court shall conduct its proceedings through the virtual mode to the extent possible.
This comes after a request was made by the state government to reduce the footfall in the court to contain the spread of the second wave of the coronavirus. In its response, the administration stated that only government lawyers shall be allowed to appear in person for the hearings of bail petitions and other urgent cases.
An official notification was subsequently issued by the Registrar General P. Dhanabal, stating that all lawyers’ chambers on the High Court campus shall remain closed until further orders. Similarly, the libraries in all Bar associations would remain closed and these restrictions shall apply to the Madurai bench of the High Court as well.
The Chief Justice inquired Advocate General Vijay Narayan if the government had decided upon any advisory for public buildings, to which the AG replied that he would ask Health Secretary J. Radhakrishnan to meet personally with the Chief Justice to apprise him of the situation.