The “limited” functioning of the Gauhati High Court will resume from April 20th, 2020 according to a notification of by the High Court.

The Chief Justice on Thursday issued directions regulating court working of the Gauhati High Court in the Principal Seat at Guwahati as well in the outlying benches and also the subordinate courts in the “states” of Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, for the avoidance of mass gatherings or postponement of mass gatherings till novel coronavirus (COVID-19) disease spread is contained.

As the national lockdown has been further extended till May 3rd, 2020, the limited Court functioning is to resume from April 20th, 2020.

However, during this period in the Principal Seat at Guwahati, only the cases of urgent nature will be taken up in the courtrooms equipped with video conferencing facilities, so as to maintain social distancing between the learned advocates and Judges. In the High Court complex separate facility has been arranged from where learned advocates can make their submission while judges “shall” sit at remote locations.

The notification added that in case any learned advocate desires to conduct his/her case from his/her residence/office in the Principal Seat, Guwahati, he/she will be required to observe some protocol. The advocate must have an internet connection with a bandwidth of not less than 5 Mbps and the advocate will be required to download “VidyoMobile” (for mobile phone user) from Play Store or App Store and in case if the advocate is using a computer, they’ll need to download VidyoDesktop.

The notification added, “In respect of outlying Benches in the States of Nagaland, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh, respective Registrars are directed to create similar e-mail i/ds and publish notifications to that effect.”

According to the notification, cases are to be filed in the manner as already in vogue. The index of each case is required to clearly give the nature of the document, page numbers etc.

Photo Credit: ghconline.gov.in/