Regular functions of courts to resume next week: CJ

Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain yesterday decided to run both regular and virtual proceedings of the High Court from next week for the interest of lawyers and litigants.

He took the decision at a full court meeting with the judges from both the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court. The lawyers will be able to move cases before the physical or virtual HC benches after the court functions resume.

Meeting sources said more than 40 HC judges of total 92 expressed views for conducting court functions in physical presence, strictly following health guidelines while the remaining judges opined for continuing virtual proceedings.

Now, the chief justice will constitute benches with the judges concerned in order to operate both the physical and virtual functions.

Most judges, who joined the virtual full court meeting, have proposed to curtail the next court vacation to recover the gaps caused by the ongoing pandemic, according to sources.

Yesterday's full court meeting did not discuss the functions of the Appellate Division as all the judges of this division are continuing to run virtual proceedings led by the chief justice.

Syed Mahmud Hossain told the full court meeting that the judges, who conduct cases at the Appellate Division, have more health risks during the pandemic due to their age.

The chief justice has recently decided to resume regular court activities from August 5, strictly maintaining physical distancing and health guidelines.

The virtual court functions started on May 11 after a gap of 46 days in order to deal with the urgent cases. The regular activities of courts across the country remained closed since March 26 due to the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.