Supreme Court virtual courts start taking applications

The Supreme Court (SC) has started taking applications for hearing urgent cases through videoconferencing.

The country's apex court, through separate circulars on Monday, announced that the chamber bench of the Appellate Division and three benches of the High Court (HC) Division will hear urgent cases virtually during the ongoing coronavirus shutdown.

M Saifur Rahman, a special officer of the SC, said the chief justice has assigned Justice Md Nuruzzaman to sit in the chamber court, while Justice Obaidul Hasan, Justice Jahangir Hossain and Justice Muhammad Khurshid Sharker have been given the responsibility of the three HC benches.

Saifur Rahman said separate email addresses have been created for the benches for hearing urgent cases.

After sorting the very urgent applications filed at the HC Division, the SC will decide on hearing them in the virtual courts, he said, adding that the apex court will also formulate a cause list in this regard.

The chamber court will start hearing cases on Thursday.

It is learnt that several lawyers have already applied to the HC seeking hearing of urgent cases at the virtual courts.

Amid a closure of courts during the general holidays put in force to contain the Covid-19 outbreak, the authorities concerned on April 26 took an initiative to introduce virtual courts.

Against this backdrop, the cabinet on Thursday last approved an ordinance styled "Usage of Information and Communication Technology in Court 2020" to allow courts to work digitally via videoconference.

Two days later, the law ministry published a gazette notification of the ordinance following approval from the president.

According to the ordinance, the Appellate Division, or in some cases the HC Division, will be able to issue practice guidelines (special or general) from time to time.