All courts, except those in Pune, to reopen in Maharashtra

All courts in Maharashtra except for courts in Pune will resume their regular functions from the next months in two shifts as per the new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) released on Friday.

The Bombay High Court on Friday released new SOP for all the courts except for the courts in Pune judicial district, whereby it is said that all the courts shall start regular functioning with effect from December 1 in two shifts, which would be of two and a half hours - from 11.00 am to 1.30 pm and from 2.00 pm to 4.30 pm.

“In the first shift, preferably, the cases which are fixed for evidence and in the second shift, preferably, the cases which are fixed for judgment, order or hearing of arguments may be taken up,” the new SOP stated. Further, as per the new SOP, the respective principle judges are asked to appoint an officer for inspection of the court premises to oversee the arrangements vis-à-vis adherence of the safety norms.

With the new SOP, the court library would now reopen along with bar rooms for the lawyers. However, the respective Bar Associations are asked to observe all the safety norms and ensure sanitisation.

The courts in the state have been taking up only urgent matters since the lockdown was announced in March this year. The courts were asked to only take up matters of urgent hearing which are bails, anticipatory bails or remand application. The civil courts too had almost stopped functioning since the lockdown and were open for urgent reliefs only.