Delhi Courts Partially Functioning Under Lockdown 3.0
04 May 2020
With the Indian government extending lockdown for another two weeks until May 18, the Administrative and General Supervision Committee of High Court of Delhi has once again suspended functioning of the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts. All pending cases in which hearings were scheduled before the Court from May 4 to May 17 have now been adjourned to dates in June, 2020.
The arrangements by the High Court for mentioning and hearing of urgent matters through videoconferencing will continue during lockdown 3.0 and the Court is likely to increase the number of benches for hearing urgent cases. As of now, two Division Benches and six Single Benches are functional at the High Court.
The Delhi High Court and subordinate courts have heard more than 11,000 cases through video conferencing during the lockdown, which started on March 25. Initially, hearings through video conferencing were confined to extremely urgent matters, but the Courts have started taking up urgent matters of all kinds, including fresh matters seeking interim relief. A fresh patent infringement case was also heard by the Delhi High Court last week involving a Pharma patent.
The Court has also introduced a procedure to take up ripe matters of certain important categories for disposal on the basis of written submissions alone, with the consent of counsel for both the sides.
