News Desk :
In the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak, all the civil and criminal courts in the country will be run in a virtual manner along with physical attendance, the Supreme Court administration has said.
The country’s lower court will proceed in both phases from Sunday until further notice.
This information has been given in the notification signed by Md. Ali Akbar, Registrar General of the Supreme Court, as per the direction of the Chief Justice on Saturday.
The notification said due to the rising situation in the COVID outbreak, all lower civil and criminal courts of the country and judges of the tribunal will conduct all types of judicial activities through virtual by ‘Information Technology Use Act by Court, 2020’ or physical attendance.
In this case, all types of cases can be filed in physical presence and the judge will complete the testimony in physical presence. Individuals/persons accused in a criminal case may file a surrender petition in the presence of a subordinate criminal court and tribunal.
The notification also states that there is no obligation to wear a gown in conducting judicial proceedings in a virtual manner.
Earlier, the trial of the Appellate Division and the High Court Division of the Supreme Court was also started virtually due to the COVID situation from January 19.
For the first time in the history of the country since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in 2020, the law has been amended and since May 11 of that year, the High Court has been operating on a virtually limited scale. Later, virtual trials were also started in the lower courts.
However, when the situation improves, the Supreme Court administration started the normal proceedings in the High Court from December 1 last year and in the lower courts from August 11 of the same year.
Due to the rising incidence of COVID, the decision has been taken to run the High and lower courts virtually again.
