A day after the government has announced the extension of lockdown for another two weeks beyond May 3, the Central Administrative Tribunal has come up with the decision to operationalize its benches in the Green Zones.

“Wherever the Benches/Courts are located in GREEN zones, they shall function duly following the guidelines that are issued by the MHA such as maintaining the Social Distance, making the sanitary arrangements and avoiding the direct contact. To the extent possible, the method of functioning of the High Courts in the concerned area shall be adopted,” Central Administrative Tribunal said in a notification.

The Head of the Department (HoD) of the concerned Bench shall take decisions in this behalf in consultation with the President of the Bar Association. The feedback as to the convenience of the employees and their method of functioning shall be taken from the Registrar of the Bench. The decisions taken in this regard shall be forthwith forwarded to the Registry of the Principal Bench,” it added.

It is to be noted that the Principal Bench of the Central Administrative Tribunal and its other Benches across the country remained suspended since the first lockdown was imposed on March 24.

It continued to remain suspended in the second phase of the lockdown as well.

Central Administrative Tribunal further said that those benches falling in the Red zones and Orange zones, only cases of urgent nature will be filed that also through e-mail by contacting the Registrar of the concerned Bench.

The registrar in turn shall furnish the e-mail id to the intending Advocate or Party.

If the Registry is satisfied that the OA is otherwise in order and needs to be dealt with urgently, the HoD of the Bench shall be informed of the same. The HoD in turn shall decide whether or not to take up the case. If it is proposed to hear the case, it shall be done through CISCO WEBEX online Video Conferencing Facility, CAT said.

The details thereof shall be worked out by the HoD of the Benches in consultation with the Registry of the Principal Bench. It shall be ensured that the participants in the Video Conference put on the apparel or at least, are properly dressed.

If the Advocates of the Bar Association of such Benches are agreeable for hearing of pending cases through such mechanism, the cases shall be identified by the registry and hearing thereof shall take place through the same system in a time slot that may be decided by the HoD on daily basis.