Tanvi Sinha
Justice S S Shinde, a senior judge warned of not taking any further cases if social distancing norms were not followed in court on Monday.
This comes after overcrowding in the court reportedly irked Justice Shinde causing him to have police officers, lawyers and others in the court to wait outside.
The judge went on to speak of how the scene in front of him was a complete breach of the conditions under which the court was reopened for physical sessions.
Justice Shinde emphasised the importance of the same referring to the instance of the 60 lawyers in Amravati district Maharashtra testing positive for COVID-19.
Only last week Justice Prathima Chavan refused to hear a case if the lawyer appeared in court without a mask and last month saw Justice Gautam Patel had issued a notice complaining of overcrowding.
Physical sessions were suspended in April last year and had hearings continue via video conferencing systems, with a combination system of both virtual and physical hearings starting December last year.
Currently, the court is open from Monday to Thursday and maintains a hybrid system of physical and virtual sessions on Fridays.