New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi extended the nationwide lockdown to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the Delhi High Court followed suit and extended the suspension of its functioning and also that of its subordinate courts till May 3.
In his address to the nation on Tuesday morning, the Prime Minister had announced the extension of the nationwide lockdown till May 3.
“The Administrative and General Supervision Committee of this court is pleased to order that the functioning of the courts subordinate to Delhi High Court shall continue to remain suspended till May 3, 2020, on the same terms,” read an official order issued by Delhi High Court Registrar General (RG) Manoj Jain.
The high court further ordered that in case a regular hearing is to take place within the court complex, social distancing norms have to be adhered to.
“It is further ordered that the matters listed between April 16 and May 2 in the subordinate courts be also adjourned en bloc and information in this regard be uploaded on the District Court website,” the order further said.
All hearings will be done preferably through video conferencing, which would automatically result in decongestion in court complexes. All the District and Sessions Judges shall ensure that video conferencing is done through ‘Cisco WebEx’,” the high court directed.
The court also said that online training about the using the software will be given to all the judicial officers and court staff through the centralised computer committee. The committee would, from time to time, seek necessary instructions from the IT committee of the court on the aspect of VC hearing and would also ensure that there is complete uniformity among all the districts in this regard.
“Each District and Sessions Judge would be at liberty to take appropriate steps to personally ensure that the mechanism of mentioning of urgent matters in the concerned districts is quick and efficient, and depute judicial officers for hearing the matters, related to bail and urgent civil/injunction cases, corresponding to the need and requirement of the concerned District,” the order issued by Jain said.
