High court adjourns all July hearings up to October

CHANDIGARH : The Punjab and Haryana high court on Friday deferred hearings in the pending cases to be listed in July between August 1 and October 31.

Lawyers and litigants have been asked to file an application in case of urgencies.

The high court has been functioning in a restricted manner since March 16 and cases are being taken up through videoconferencing.

Now with the fresh order, all pending cases including those wherein hearing was deferred during the lockdown period have been ordered to be listed between August and October 31.

Earlier, the high court had cancelled summer vacations in June. However, functioning remained restricted. Every day around 15 judges are taking up ‘urgent matters’ through videoconference.

Hours after the decision, the Punjab and Haryana High Court Bar Association (PHHCBA) held a meeting and requested the court to call a fresh meeting of the high court administrative committee and also invite Bar body members.

The lawyers want all judges to resume work either through video-conferencing or physically so that more and more cases could be taken up.

“An object-oriented pragmatic approach should be adopted so that the job of imparting justice to the society is not hampered,” Bar secretary Rohit Sud stated in a letter to the high court administration.