Telangana HC to resume physical hearings from 7 September

Hyderabad: The Telangana High Court which had turned virtual in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic has decided to restart conducting physical hearings from 7 to 11 September. This would be a combination of physical court hearings and virtual hearings, while other courts in the High Court will continue virtual hearings from 7 September till 21 September, it said.

The High Court issued a notification in this regard informing all stakeholders, including the advocates appearing before the courts physically, to follow the guidelines and other instructions issued by the High Court scrupulously, including maintaining physical distance and using masks and sanitisers.

Meanwhile, the present practice of filing cases online or in the physical form regarding issues like PILs, bails, stay petitions, hearing of pending admission matters, and final hearings will continue through video conferencing.

The court took the decision after it received requests from advocates to reopen the courts and also after looking into the health and safety issues of the stakeholders.

The courts will take up admission matters virtually before the afternoon session and final hearings and other matters will be taken up for physical hearing in the afternoon session or after exhausting the list of admission matters. All mentions may be made through video conferencing only before all the Benches at 10.30 a.m.

Advocates and party-in-persons have been informed that they can file cases online or in physical form. They have further been asked to follow COVID-19 guidelines while filing cases physically in the High Court. Also, the High Court will continue to take up urgent matters along with final hearings, pending admissions, and other matters, as permitted by the judges as per the roster in addition to fresh matters either physically or through video conferencing.

In addition to the existing control rooms in Telangana State Judicial Academy, Secunderabad, control rooms have also been set up in the High Court premises for the benefit of advocates who are attending the physical courts in the High Court to attend/represent the cases in other virtual courts. Meanwhile, all other instructions issued earlier for online filing and hearing through video conferencing will continue to be in force until further orders.