Kolkata, Jul 23 (PTI) In order to strike a balance between access to justice and precautions to be taken owing to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Chief Justice of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday ordered that the court may function regularly on a restricted scale till normalcy returns.

Chief Justice T B N Radhakrishnan, after considering the recommendations of the Covid Committee of the High Court, advised lawyers to file only extremely urgent matters till August 15.

Also Read | Odisha Triple Murder Case: Couple And Son Hacked to Death in Sleep in Sonepur District.

In a notification, High Court Registrar General Rai Chattopadhyay said, "Hearings will be taken up only on the video platform except in case of indigent litigants appearing in person or lawyers not having access to the requisite technology or connectivity."

The CJ ordered that bail and anticipatory bail matters may be filed electronically, while all other filings will be in physical mode.

Also Read | No Tax on Ganga Aarti in Varanasi, Order Imposing Fee on Religious And Cultural Events at Ganga Ghat Withdrawn.

Apart from the Chief Justice's bench, two division benches will sit on every working day (except the lockdown days) from 11 AM to 1 PM and take up concurrently all matters, except public interest litigations.

Five single benches will also sit from 2 pm to 3.30 pm on the same days as the division benches, the notification said.

It said that the Chief Justice has ordered that though the court will function from the main building, lawyers, litigants, staff of lawyers and others should refrain from visiting it unless unavoidable.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)