MADURAI: Addressing advocates’ demand to resume physical hearing in courts across TN, Acting Chief Justice of Madras High Court Munishwar Nath Bhandari requested them to wait for the right time as the health of all stakeholders needs to be considered before taking a call.
ACJ Bhandari made the request on Saturday, while inaugurating 84 additional law chambers for advocates, residential apartments for judges and a bridge connecting the first floor of the law chambers and the first floor of the administrative block in the High Court Bench premises.
He also laid foundation stone for the additional law officers block at the court premises. Administrative Judge, Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and other companion judges, judicial officers, advocates and court staff were present on the occasion.
“I am aware of the demands for resuming physical hearing. I have already assured the Bar members of several subordinate courts that whenever the pandemic situation improves, we will definitely open the courts. It may be initially virtual-physical. I request the advocates to wait for some more time as the health of everyone, including advocates, litigants, judicial officers and other staff, should be taken into consideration,” he added.
Meanwhile, Justice B Pugalendhi and Additional Advocate General Veera Kathiravan noted that the construction of additional law chambers had been a long-pending demand of the Madurai Bench advocates. Also stating that the Madras HC has secured the second place in the country with regard to disposal of cases, Justice Pugalendhi said, “Out of 2.8 lakh cases disposed of by the Madras High Court, 40 per cent was contributed by the Madurai Bench. This infrastructure boost would further increase the disposal rate.”
Of the newly inaugurated works, the construction of 84 additional law chambers incurred a cost of `7.73 crore, `1.19 crore was spent for the bridge, and the judges’ residential apartments cost around `13.56 crore. A sum of `4.27 crore has also been sanctioned for constructing the additional law officers block.