Pryagraj (ILNS): Various grievances have landed with the India Legal team with regards to the listing of cases in the Allahabad High Court during the persisting situation of the COVID-19 pandemic. The main contention in all such grievances is that urgent matters/writ petitions are not being listed, even after the Supreme Court has directed the parties to move to the High Court for relief.
Counsels regularly appearing before the Allahabad High Court informed us that even cases filed with an urgent application are being listed at least after a month, with the excuse of sanitization processes. India Legal was also informed that files were being kept in isolation for a long period of time. We have also been informed that even urgent bail applications are taking more than a month to get listed. Even after the matter gets listed, advocates are not given a link to the video conferencing a day prior to the hearing; they are usually sent a few minutes before the hearing.
It has also been informed to us that the fresh applications that are being moved before the High Court are facing difficulty in getting listed for over than one and-a-half month. However, it has also been pointed out that some matters get listed in only 2 to 4 days. Advocates are also not being informed about when their matters are being listed.
Several difficulties are being faced by advocates since the reopening of the Allahabad High Court, whether it be in e-filing, listing of urgent matters, appearance through video conferencing or a notice of listing of cases to advocates, etc.
Earlier, various letters had also been written by the High Court Bar Association and individual advocates to Chief Justice Govind Mathur, highlighting the grievance over the functioning of the court during the pandemic and a lack of sanitization, but the situation has not improved.
-India Legal Bureau