Delhi High Court, subordinate court proceedings remain suspended till May 3

In view of extension of nationwide lockdown to contain COVID-19, functioning of the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts will continue to remain suspended till May 3.

The decision to this effect was taken by the Administrative and General Supervision Committee of the High Court.

While the arrangements qua mentioning and hearing of urgent matters by the High Court through video conferencing shall continue as before, the number of Benches to hear matters through video conferencing would be increased further.

All the pending matters listed before the High Court, including the courts of Registrars and Joint Registrars, during the period from April 16, 2020 to May 2, 2020 stand adjourned to dates in June-July 2020.

Matters listed during this period before the subordinate courts have also been adjourned en bloc. Information in this regard would be uploaded on District Court website.

The High Court has also directed all the District and Sessions Judges to ensure that video-conferencing is done through ‘Cisco WebEx’.

It is added that 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 District 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.

For any hearing taking place within the court complex, it must be ensured that the norm of social distancing is scrupulously adhered to, the High Court has directed.