COVID19: Orissa High Court Switches To Virtual Hearing Till February 4

The Orrisa High Court has issued a notification switching to virtual hearing until February 4, 2022, in light of the state's rising COVID-19 and Omicron cases. The offices of the High Court will be functioning with 50% strength of employees, on a roaster basis, other than the officers in the rank of Assistant Registrar and above, who have to be in attendance daily.

The High Court has also imposed restrictions for others over entry into the court premises. In case of a specific direction of any Bench for removal of defects, the Advocate may come to the High Court for that limited purpose with prior intimidation to the Deputy Registrar (Judicial).

The filing of cases and documents will be done through the e-filing portal or dropbox, kept near the copying section, between 10.30 AM to 02.00 PM. For a listing of the cases, mentioning is done through mention memos in dropbox. In case of urgent matters, oral mentioning must be done before the Deputy Registrar (Judicial) through Video conferencing between 11.00 AM to 12.00 noon. In extreme urgency, the matter may be mentioned before the respective Benches through Video Conferencing.

The High Court has suspended the practice of granting certified copies and print out of the order and judgment passed by the Court. It will be available on the High Court website. Other guidelines concerning the change are as follows:

a. Functioning of the Lawzima Courts shall remain suspended.

b. The Medical Dispensaries of the High Court shall function as usual.

c. The Security Personnel deployed in the High Court shall be on duty as usual.

d. In addition to the existing two V.C. Cabins, one more V.C. Cabin shall be functional in Odisha State Bar Council premises to facilitate the appearance of the counsel through Video Conferencing.

Click Here To Download/Read The Office Order