Calcutta High Court and its subordinate courts will function in a restricted manner from March 17 because of the coronavirus pandemic, hearing only matters that have already been listed, a notification said on Sunday.

The arrangement will continue till March 19 and will be reviewed on March 20, the notification from high court registrar Rai Chattopadhyay said.

“The lawyers may advise their clients not to visit the court unless their presence is directed by the court or is unavoidable,” the notification said.

“Till the present situation persists, no adverse/default orders be passed in matters where parties are found to be absent. This will apply even to matters listed on Monday” (March 16), it added.

“Courts should not insist on the presence of the parties, unless it is unavoidable.

Appropriate measures be taken to regulate entry of the litigants and the general public in the court complex to avoid crowding,” the notification said.

Physicians from the high court medical unit or other appropriate personnel will be stationed at all the entry points — Gates A, B and E of the main building — and use thermal guns to check the temperatures of all entrants, including judges, lawyers and litigants. If anyone is found to have fever, the physicians will take “immediate action”.

Subordinate courts have been requested to waive the physical production of undertrial prisoners in favour of video-conferencing.

Judges and lawyers are to leave the court complexes and release their staff as early as possible.

Staff will work by rotation so that no more than half of them work on any given day.

“Absence of staff on a particular day because of this advisory shall be treated as ‘on duty’,” the notification says.

“Sanitisers (should be) available in all court rooms and all departments and also in the respective court complexes for the visitors as well as the staff…. Disinfectants (should be) sprayed on a regular basis.”

The high court director-general will write to the state government seeking enough physicians and thermal guns so that similar measures can be adopted at the district and sub-divisional courts.

All three lawyer bodies of the high court — the Bar Association, Bar Library Club and the Incorporate Law Society — and the district bar associations have been requested to ensure there is no crowding on court premises or lawyers’ chambers.

Chattopadhyay has requested that the lawyer association rooms be closed except for lawyers obtaining their belongings from there.

Former Bar Association president Uttam Majumder said: “Litigants may suffer for the time being, but this decision was necessary in the larger public interest.”

On Saturday, on a request from the lawyers’ bodies, Chief Justice T.B.N. Radhakrishnan had formed a committee of three senior judges —Justices Dipankar Dutta, Sanjib Banerjee and I.P. Mukerji — who met on Sunday morning and forwarded the recommendations, a source said.

High court sources said the daily average footfall was now 18,000 apart from the about 300 police personnel deployed at the three buildings. Some 44 judges now hear about 1,100 cases in the 36 courtrooms on an average day.