Amid the outbreak of pandemic COVID-19, the Supreme Court today took a major decision to curb the spread of deadly disease in the Court by restraining physical appearances of lawyers and litigants and only allowing hearing of cases through video conferencing. The cases which have any urgency shall only be permitted to hear during lockdown. The entry passes of the lawyers are also suspended. The top court has also directed to seal the lawyers’ chamber in the vicinity by 5PM tomorrow as the cleaning staff is not available.
The Court has also come up with a system wherein the counsels would be allowed to make submissions in their case through video conferencing from their home. The SCBA President Dushyant Dave mentioned before CJI requested to declare vacation of the Court till further orders as everyone is scared to come to court and litigants are pressuring lawyers to list their cases.
The CJI while replying to advocates’ body said that difficulty is what to call in law. If we say we are on vacation, then we will have to sit and work during June i.e. in between summer vacation to make up 240 days of work. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta suggested that we can have vacation benches even now and court may pass a general order wherein it will be deemed extension of limitation. The Court disagreeing with the view has said that nobody is going out of station and nobody is expected to go even. Filing of cases shall be done and only cases of extreme urgency will be heard only once a week.
India Legal Bureau.