HC Chief Justice carries out surprise check at Ambala Sessions Division

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 6

Sending across a stern message of total intolerance towards relaxed attitude in judicial functioning at the level of the subordinate courts, the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court today carried out a surprise check at the Ambala Sessions Division.

The Chief Justice, Justice Ravi Shanker Jha, was accompanied by High Court Registrar-General Sanjiv Berry and Registrar-Vigilance Vikram Aggarwal during the visit. It was, perhaps, the first such surprise visit by Chief Justice Jha to check whether the courts were functioning properly, especially with the resumption of physical hearing following a decline in Covid cases.

Available information suggests that nothing was found to be amiss, but the visit did send across a message to the subordinate judiciary that the High Court was monitoring its functioning.

It is believed that the Chief Justice and the two Registrars reached the courts in Ambala in the post-lunch session. They inspected the courtrooms and went around the court complex. While some Judges were still holding courts, some others had wound up the work for the day.

Chief Justice Jha also interacted with the Sessions Judge of the Ambala Sessions Division.

The courts had shifted to the virtual mode of hearing from physical platform following the Covid outbreak in March last year. The court to a large extent resumed in-person hearing after the second wave subsided, taking up cases through videoconferencing where physical hearing was not desired or not feasible.

The check was also aimed at restoring a sense of confidence in the litigants that the courts had left behind the slow-motion syndrome brought about by snags during hearings via videoconferencing.