India: Delhi Supreme Court suspends physical hearing of cases as 50% staffers infected by COVID-19

New Delhi:  Amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases in the Supreme Court, physical hearing of the cases has been suspended in the apex court and judges will conduct proceedings one hour later than their scheduled time from their respective residences on Monday.

According to Supreme Court sources, many staff members of the top court are believed to be infected with COVID-19. The top court premises, including courtrooms, are getting sanitised and benches will be an hour later than scheduled.

"The competent authority has been pleased to direct that the physical mentioning of matters before the mentioning registrar shall be suspended till further orders. However, the mentioning of matters through video conferencing mode will continue," said Additional Registrar, DEU.

In a notice, the Additional Registrar further said that all the benches which are scheduled to sit at 10:30 am, will sit at 11.30am and those scheduled to sit at 11am will sit at 12noon in Supreme Court, today.

"The special bench comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Ashok Bhushan constituted in court no. 4 for hearing w.p. (c)no. 940/2017 etc. which is scheduled to sit at 10.30 am will now sit at 11.30 am and the regular benches comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice KM Joseph in court no. 4 and Justice Ashok Bhushan and justice R Subhash Reddy in court no. 7 will sit after the hearing in special bench matters listed in court no. 4 is over. (This is in supersession of earlier notice dated April 11, 2021, issued in this behalf)," the notice stated.