Chennai,  The Madras High Court on Friday said that only "extremely urgent" cases will be heard by it and all trial courts across Tamil Nadu and Puducherry between June 1 and 11 in view of the Covid-19 situation.

The high court also advised the trial courts to conduct proceedings through video conferencing as far as possible and to restrict the entry of lawyers and litigants into the court premises.

A notification issued by Registrar General P. Dhanabal, the bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy would continue to hear cases that are assigned to it till June 11.

Two more division benches and three single judges would be available to hear the rest of the cases. The Madurai bench of the Madras High court would also function on a similar basis.

The Registrar General, in a separate notification to the trial courts of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry, stated that cases should be entertained only if they were accompanied with reasons explaining the the urgency of the case. He also stated that hearing a case would be the prerogative of the judicial officer concerned.