The Bar Council of Delhi Chairman, Mr. KC Mittal has written to the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, Justice DN Patel for designation of more judicial officers in the district courts in order to facilitate hearing of matters as per the protocol set out by the Supreme Court on April 6.
In its letter, BCD Chairman has also urged the Chief Justice to hold Benches in the High court for hearing matters.
Mr. Mittal has written that Chief Justice has been kind enough to hold proceedings by Video conferencing in extremely urgent matters, in the larger interest of the litigants. No doubt, total lockdown was essential in the given situation and as the patriarch of the legal fraternity of Delhi, Chief Justice and the Senior Judges of the High Court took a correct decision to the above effect.
At the same time the closure of courts has resulted in extreme hardships to a majority of lawyers who have struggled to survive. No less strugglesome has been the plight of under trials and other needy citizens whose cases, despite urgency, could not be taken up, in the wake of the above referred extra ordinary circumstances.
In the meantime, Hon’ble Supreme Court vide order dated 06.04.2020 has passed certain directions to conduct hearings through videoconferencing, which pave way for relaxing the present protocol of extremely urgent hearing and accommodating other categories of urgent hearings and also consider to introduce a mechanism so that some matters of great importance and causing great prejudice to people can be taken up by strictly observing the preventive measures. If possible some benches can be held in the High court, restricting entry by permitting only the advocate on record.
Mr. Mittal urged the Chief Justice to allocate more judicial officers in the District Courts to facilitate hearing of other categories of urgent matters as well, under the protocol set out in the above order of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.
This will subserve the wider interest of all stakeholders of the justice delivery system in general and also provide succour to the lawyers and litigants in particular.
While talking to India legal, Mr. KC Mittal Advocate said, “All the lawyers have cooperated in the lockdown. We have requested Delhi High Court to provide some system for hearing of urgent matters without compromising with the preventive measures that have to be taken.”
-India Legal Bureau