Karnataka High Court Closes Suo Moto PIL Taken To Address Court Functioning Amid COVID19

Observing that "We hope that in the future this court will not be required to initiate such suo-motu proceedings," the Karnataka High Court on Friday closed the proceedings in the public interest litigation initiated on its own to address various legal and technical issues that arose before the district and trial courts, from June 1 2020, when they started 'limited functioning', in the state.

A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum said "From the perusal of order passed on May 28, 2020 basically this suo-motu PIL was initiated to deal with the peculiar situation created due to the spread of coronavirus. Larger number of orders were passed for taking care of the situation arising due to partial closure of this court, essentially for the purpose of extending maximum benefit to litigants. Considering the fact that the situation has considerably increased, we do not think any further orders are required to be passed in the Public interest litigation."

The bench recorded its appreciation to amicus curiae and state and central government advocates who appeared in the matter and assisted the court to pass various orders. It said "While we close this petition we must appreciate the services rendered by Senior advocate Uday Holla and Senior Advocate C V Nagesh, who were appointed as amicus curiae. We must also note that Dhyan Chinnappa Additional Advocate General ably assisted by advocate Vikram Huilgol and Additional Solicitor General M B Nargund ably assisted by Advocate M N Kumar, have rendered valuable assistance to the court. It is only because of their assistance and valuable contribution that this court could pass various procedural orders, for streamlining the procedure during partial functioning of the courts (High court and District courts)."

As per an recent Standard Operating procedure issued by the High Court on January 12, normal functioning of the Courts as existed prior to 15th March 2020 in all the Districts except the districts namely—Bengaluru Urban, 2) Bengaluru Rural, 3) Chikkaballapura, 4) D.K. Mangaluru, 5) Mysuru, 6) Shivamogga and 7) Tumakuru, is restored.