All district courts in the Capital will take up only urgent matters and that too through videoconferencing in view of the exponential rise in COVID-19 cases. The direction of the Delhi High Court comes a day after it decided that from April 19 onwards it will only take up “extremely urgent matters” filed this year. The HC Chief Justice and three other judges are reportedly infected.
“In view of the alarming rise in COVID-19 cases in the National Capital Territory of Delhi, in continuation of this court’s office order dated April 8, 2021, it is ordered that all the judicial officers of district courts in Delhi shall take up only urgent cases of their respective courts, through videoconferencing mode,” stated the office order, issued by the office of the Delhi High Court Registrar General Manoj Jain.
On April 8, the high court had decided that it will take up court proceedings through virtual mode only from April 9 to April 23.
After the imposition of the first nationwide lockdown, the high court started conducting hearings through videoconferencing from March 24 last year to contain the spread of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Over five months later, the High Court resumed physical hearing of courts proceedings initially with five of its benches on a rotation basis from September 1. The number of benches conducting physical hearing was increased gradually.
The High Court had commenced complete physical functioning from March 15 onwards.
