HC defers pending cases hearing till July

A notice in this regard was put out by the high court administration on Saturday

The Punjab and Haryana high court on Saturday deferred hearing of pending cases listed between May 18 and May 31 to the second half of July in view of lockdown and Covid-19 outbreak. A notice in this regard was put out by the high court administration on Saturday.

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An official of the high court said that administration is waiting for the detailed guidelines from the ministry of home affairs (MHA) and will make changes if warranted, accordingly. The official also said if there is an urgency involved, litigants can file an application for early hearing. He also added that a decision with regard to summer vacations, which falls in June, will also be taken accordingly.

High court’s work is restricted to hearing of urgent cases only, but with prior mentioning since March 16. Currently, two division benches and 10 single benches are taking up around 200 cases through video conferencing, whereas, daily listing of the cases on a normal day in high court remains around 2,500-3,000.

Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association secretary Rohit Sud said the court should ease listing norms and allow hearing of fresh cases without mentioning. “We had given a charter of demands and sought for physical hearing to resume in courts. But final decision is to be taken by the administration,” he added.

Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana (BCPH) chairman Karanjit Singh underlined that the high court should experiment with allowing physical hearing at least on trial basis and designate some benches for the same.