Staff Reporter :
Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on Thursday constituted 12 High Court virtual benches to hear and dispose of cases only for August 8 to 12.
Among the 12 benches, nine are division (two judges) benches and three are single (one judge) benches, according to a notification issued by the chief justice. The benches will run their functions using information technology without anyone’s physical presence. Earlier on August 5, Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain decided to run the virtual court functions across the country to a limited scale in order to deal with urgent cases till August 12 due to ongoing lockdown enforced by the government in order to restrain Covid-19 pandemic.
The chief justice took the decision while presiding over a full court meeting virtually attended by the judges of the Appellate and High Court Divisions of the Supreme Court on Thursday afternoon.
All the 53 benches of the HC division will operate virtually since August 16 for hearing and disposing of the new cases. The subordinates will also perform judicial functions using information technology and strictly following the health safety guidelines after August 15.
The full court meeting decided not to deal with the anticipatory bail petitions till August 12 apprehending that overcrowding of anticipatory bail seekers will take place in the HC rooms and therefore, Covid-19 pandemic cannot be restrained if the hearing and disposal of anticipatory bail petitions are allowed during this period.
Further decision will be taken at next full court meeting, according to the sources.
Earlier on August 4, Supreme Court Bar Association Secretary Md Ruhul Quddus requested Chief Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain over phone to assign few benches of the HC for dealing with anticipatory bail petitions.
