Six Supreme Court judges have contracted swine flu, following which they are not able to turn up to attend the court proceedings.
Justices A.S. Bopanna, Hemant Gupta, Indira Banerjee, L. Nageswara Rao, Hrishikesh Roy and Abdul Nazeer were not present in the court on Tuesday.
A meeting was held with Chief Justice SA Bobde today to discuss the remedial measures, a senior judge said.
It was also suggested that lawyers, as well as bar association, should take all preventive measures against the disease. Immunisation of judges, lawyers, and junior court staff has been proposed among other measures.
The judges also met Supreme Court Bar Association President Dushyant Dave to tackle the health emergency.
Justice DY Chandrachud, while conducting the court proceedings, announced that all apex court judges met Chief Justice over the case of six of their colleagues infected by the H1N1 virus.
Justice Sanjiv Khanna was seen wearing a mask in the court while conducting a session.
Advocate Aryama Sundaram in a hearing before a bench of Justice Arun Mishra asked the court if he can be excused today from the hearing as he was feeling exhausted for the past two days. He requested the court to let his co-counsel to argue.
Justice Mishra asked Sundaram not to come to the court as there is an outbreak of the H1N1 virus.
“It’s a request to everyone here, if you are not well please avoid coming to Court,” Justice Mishra said.
According to the sources, some foreign dignitaries who participated in the three-day International Judicial conference held last week in the Supreme Court complex were infected with the contagious virus.
Swine flu is caused by type A strain of the influenza virus. It enters the body through inhalation of contaminated droplets, or is transferred from a contaminated surface to the eyes, nose or mouth of a person.
Two of the judges suffering from swine flu are on the nine-judge Constitution Bench hearing the Sabarimala verdict case, the hearing of which has been delayed as a result.
Last week, the 9-judge bench hearing Sabarimala reference was cancelled as Justice R Bhanumathi was unwell. She had fainted on February 14 while conducting the court proceedings.