Delhi HC holds physical courts after 5-month gap

New Delhi, Sept. 1: The legal fraternity gave a mixed response to the commencement of physical hearings by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday, after a gap of more than five months, with several lawyers asking the court that their matters be heard via video conferencing.

The high court has been conducting hearings through video conferencing since March 24 to contain the spread of ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Two division benches - one of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek

Jalan and other of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rajnish Bhatnagar - and three single judges - Justices Jayant Nath, V.K. Rao and Yogesh Khanna - held physical hearing of cases on Tuesday.

The same set of division benches and judges will hold the court on Wednesday, September 2; thereafter, on the next two days it will be another set of division benches and judges. Other division benches and single judges would hold court via video conference as they did on Tuesday.

The staff of the respective courts of the Chief Justice, Justice Nath and Justice Rao said that in several matters the lawyers indicated their preference for hearings via video conferencing and urged that their cases be listed on dates when virtual hearings would be held.

However, in the separate courts of Justice Sanghi and Justice Khanna all the matters listed for physical hearing were conducted without a hitch and no one sought dates for virtual hearings, the respective court staff said.