Amidst the coronavirus, the court displays its tryst with the virtual, with direct explanations and data to give relief to all the stakeholders. During the High Court, 24 cases of Covid-19 infections among the staff of the Court were detected. This led to the containment of the area the High Court stood at.
The court made it sure that all the advocates were aware of the online platform and its smooth usage. Two online sessions conducted for the same. The session included the instructions on the effective use of the ZOOM application. “These figures very well reflect the fact that during the online VC mode of functioning of the High Court, the matters already instituted before lockdown situation are also taken care of, heard and decided.”- Gujarat High Court Report
The High Court’s Mentioning Platform
The main feature of the report was the launch of an online mentioning platform in June.
The opportunity to mention urgent matters given to the advocates on working days. These urgent matters on request would be heard between 9 am and 10 am on working days. Two designated senior judges would be hearing the same on the mentioned days. From July 30, each matter was assigned a serial number to serve as a reference for the matter being mentioned.
The matters were circulated to the appropriate bench on the same day as the mentioning day or even prior, per the report. 665 Civil cases and 342 Criminal matters were mentioned in July, according to the report.
Working of the Court
2,000 civil and 3,000 criminal cases were approximately filed over email, the report states. The report further informs that the figures are comprehensive of the interim applications as well. 3,481 of the nearly 4,473 matters filed cases were registered. Also, the report states that three new email IDs were made to encounter the huge volume of case filings. This takes the total number of filing IDs in use at the High Court to 13.
When considering the cases filed, the Special Civil Applications (SCAs) are the major percentage of the matters. And the fact that all twenty civil writ petitions registered were public interest litigation pleas, were surely striking.
Most of the criminal cases filed were for bails. July observed 1,190 original bail applications made to the High Court and 33 appeals from failed bail applications made to the lower Courts, the statistics portray. There was one appeal against an acquittal and seven appeals against conviction, among the lot. The Report notes that the ratio of criminal matters registered exceeded those filed. July’s volume in cases points directly at the work done by the various Benches. Every single Judge attended the proceedings from their homes. During the month, there were 261 sittings of judge benches and 52 of Division Benches.
The High Court’s statistics exhibit that 3,128 cases had been disposed of during July. And 1,799 of them were criminal cases. Hence, the case disposal rate for the month rests at 73.77%. Also, 605 of the cases disposed of were filed/registered before the pandemic lockdown. A total of 50 Judgements and 7,364 orders over a month highlighted the court’s disposal of pre-lockdown matters as well.
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