Many staffers at the Supreme Court test positive for coronavirus
The Supreme Court has suspended the physical hearing of all cases and has said its judges will conduct proceedings one hour late from their scheduled time from their respective residences on Monday. The directive from the top court comes amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the Supreme Court, and across the country. If the top court sources are to be believed, nearly 50 per cent of staff members have tested for the novel coronavirus, following which, the top court premises, including courtrooms, are getting sanitised.
The Supreme Court benches will also sit an hour late from their respective scheduled time, the top court said in a circular.
"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 11:30 am and those scheduled to sit at 11 am will sit at 12 noon in Supreme Court, today.
Supreme Court benches to sit one hour late from scheduled time as COVID-19 situation worsens
"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.
