Given the sudden jump in COVID-19 In the cases of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Monday ordered that all matters listed before it will be dealt with only through virtual mode or video conferencing from January 5.
Monday’s order was passed by the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in consultation with the Additional Solicitor General (Central Government), the Advocate General of the States of Punjab and Haryana, Senior Standing Counsel and the Public Prosecutor of Chandigarh, on the recommendation of a special committee. , Senior Advocate Bar Association, President and Secretary of High Court Bar Association.
According to the order, the present system of filing, listing and mentioning cases will continue. Meanwhile, the decision to list the new normal cases in the month of January, passed on December 23 last year, will be kept in abeyance.
Meanwhile, the Registrar General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court also sent a communiqué to all the District and Sessions Judges of Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh to take appropriate measures at their level with regard to hearing of cases through video-conferencing/hybrid Is. / Physical mode, in consultation with the Administrative Judge, District Administration and District Bar Associations, subject to assessment of the prevailing conditions of COVID-19 restrictions imposed in this regard.
There are 447893 cases pending in the High Court, most of which are 5-10 years old. As on January 1 this year, 447893 cases were pending in the Punjab and Haryana High Court, including 282933 civil cases and 164960 criminal cases, according to the data.
According to the National Judicial Data Grid (NZG), the pendency includes data from various applications and further process of collation of data is under process.
The NJDG data shows that of the cases pending in the High Court, the maximum – 23.51% or 1,05,320 cases – were cases that were filed 5-10 years ago.
The NZDG site also indicates that the pending cases are 56,022 (12.51%) cases which are one year old, 95,212 (21.26%) cases which are one to three years old, 88,655 (19.79%) cases which are three to five years old Huh. Year, 89,340 (19.95%) cases which are pending for 10 to 20 years, and 13,344 (2.98%) cases which are pending in High Court for more than 20 years.
The HC benches were functioning in a restricted manner since the outbreak of Covid in 2020. From September 6 last year, limited individual hearings were resumed after the number of cases went down.
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