Delhi HC to take up all matters from today

The Delhi High Court on Thursday announced new roster of judges to hear matters from their respective residences from Friday instead of handling of only the urgent matters by two division benches and 10 single benches. Its benches will now take up matters, which are at the stage of final arguments and in which consent has been received from both sides for disposal of the case on the basis of written submissions alone.

It also expanded the scope of hearing to take up criminal appeals, matrimonial matters, MACT appeals, etc that are ripe for final hearing. The existing procedure of mentioning of urgent matters will continue to be in force till further orders, but no more telephonic mentioning as the matters to be mentioned only through weblinks now.

Non-urgent matters shall be taken up by the Roster Benches on resumption of regular hearings, and as per the order of the Chief Justice of the High Court. As per sources in the Registry, during the period of lockdown, the High Court and its subordinate court have taken up 20,726 urgent matters.

The HC decision came on the heels of the Bar Council of India (BCI) on Wednesday pressed for regular hearings instead of video conferencing and decided to hold conferences on the issue with senior and other advocates,

“Cases of Covid-19 are increasing day by day and the problems of litigants and advocates are mounting. Litigants are unable to get justice through the process of virtual courts. The public and advocates are in the dark what is really going on in the various courts of the country. In the opinion of some of the biggest bar associations and several advocates of SC and HCs, people are trying to take undue advantage of lockdown,” a BCI circular said.