Work In All Courts In Telangana Suspended; Urgent Matters May Be Heard Via Video Conferencing; Interim Orders Extended Till June 7 [Read Notification]

However, extremely urgent matters will be taken up through video conference or skype.

The order is also applicable to the State Legal Services Authority, Mediation and Arbitration Centre, High Court Legal Services Committee and Telangana State Judicial Academy.

In view thereof, the High Court has drawn the attention of all the litigants towards a general order of the Supreme Court in Re: Cognizance for Extension of Limitation, Suo Moto WP (C) No. 3/2020, whereby the limitation period for filing a case before any court/Tribunal in India, has been extended. As per the order,

"To ensure that lawyers/litigants do not have to come physically to file such proceedings in respective Courts/Tribunals across the country including this Court, it is hereby ordered that a period of limitation in all such proceedings, irrespective of the limitation prescribed under the general law or Special Laws whether condonable or not shall stand extended w.e.f. 15th March 2020 till further order/s…"

The notification issued by the Registrar General states,

"1. The Subordinate Courts and Tribunals working under the control of the High Court, Telangana State Legal Services Authority, Mediation and Arbitration Centre, High Court Legal Services Committee and Telangana State Judicial Academy shall remain closed, with immediate effect till 14.04.2020 or until further orders.

2. The cases which are listed up to 14.04.2020 shall be adjourned automatically en-bloc to a working day after one month, which shall he uploaded in the District Court web site as well as CIS.

3. All the staff members, except those who are drawn for urgent judicial work, need not attend the office. They shall be available on phone, attend whenever their services are required and they shall not leave the headquarters. Their absence will be treated as on duty.

4. The respective Principal District Judges/Unit Heads shall make necessary in charge arrangements of the District Judges, Senior Civil Judges/Chief Metropolitan Magistrates, and Junior Civil Judges/Judicial First Class Magistrates, on rotation basis, to take up the extremely urgent Criminal and Civil matters such as Remand, Bail application, Extension of remand, interim injunctions, etc., through video conference or skype. Rest of the Judicial Officers shall remain in the headquarters, and attend urgent judicial work, if any, including receiving F.I.Rs., attending to pending work, recording of dying declarations, etc. In places, where there is only one Court, concerned Judicial Officer shall attend to the urgent work as aforementioned. The Principal District Judges/Unit Heads shall submit day-to-day report to the High Court.

5. The Principal District Judges/Unit Heads shall nominate one of the Administrative Officer(s), who can be contacted telephonically, by the Advocates concerned to intimate extremely urgent matters to be taken up. If any urgent matter required to be filed, the advocates shall submit the soft copy of the same through email of the District Court. The e-mail or the District Court shall be uploaded in the website of the District Court. After scrutiny, if the Principal District Judge/Unit Head considers it as extremely urgent matter, the same can be heard through video conference/skype."

Lastly, the litigants have also been informed that as per a previous order issued by the High Court, all the interim orders passed by the high court or the courts subordinate to it, that were subsisting as on March 20, have been automatically extended till June 7, 2020.

Read Notification