india

Updated: Apr 15, 2020 20:26 IST

The Delhi High Court in a communication on Wednesday said that along with district courts, its functioning will continue to remain suspended till May 3 on account of the lockdown in the wake of Covid-19 pandemic and only urgent matters will be heard through video conferencing (VC).

However, it said that the number of benches of the judges, hearing matters through videoconferencing, would be increased further.

The communication said that the Administrative and General Supervision Committee of Delhi High Court has ordered that all matters listed between April 16 and May 2 in the district courts be adjourned and information about this be uploaded on the website.

“The District and Sessions judges concerned, as already directed, may permit the judges and other staff officials to work from home, wherever possible. All hearings should be done preferably through videoconferencing which would automatically result in decongestion in court complexes,” the communication said.

After several complaints of unavailability of the infrastructure for the video conferencing of hearing, the court also resolved that all the judges should be given online training to hear the matters through VC.

“All the district and sessions judges shall ensure that video conferencing is done through ‘Cisco WebEx’. Online training about the manner of use of said software be given to all the Judicial officers and court-staff through Centralized Computer Committee.

“Such Centralized Computer Committee would, from time to time, seek necessary instructions from IT Committee of this Court on the aspect of VC hearing and would also ensure that there is complete uniformity amongst all districts in this regard,” it added.

The high court also said that each district and sessions judge (DJ) would be at liberty to take appropriate steps to personally ensure that the mechanism of mentioning of urgent matters in each of the district court is quick and efficient. It also said that the district judge can also 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 court.

Reacting to this, KC Mittal, chairman, Bar Council of Delhi (BCD), said that increasing the number of benches would bring improvement in the functioning and more cases will be heard.

“In terms of the district courts, we would observe the situation for a couple of days and if there is any problem, then we can again approach for some changes,” Mittal said.