COVID-19: Delhi HC, district courts' functioning restricted till June 30

Delhi High Court Saturday decided to restrict its functioning as well as that of district courts to urgent matters only till June 30, in view of prevalent situation of COVID-19 pandemic.

Administrative and General Supervision Committee of High Court, headed by Chief Justice D N Patel, decided that restriction would be in place till June 30 and urgent matters would continue to be heard by video conferencing.

"... functioning of High Court of Delhi shall continue to remain suspended till June 30," administrative order said.

order said presently, on account of suspended functioning of court, urgent matters of all kinds are being taken up through video conferencing by all benches of High Court as per Roster.

"However, subject to contingency of work, any matter can be assigned to any bench by order of Chief Justice twithstanding roster assigned to such a bench," it added.

mentioning of urgent matters is being done through web link which is available from 9 AM to 10.30 AM on all working days.

order said it has been resolved that all benches shall also endeavour to take up 20 oldest 'regular/final category matters' pending on ir respective boards through video conferencing mode. 

It said all cases listed in high court, including before registrars and joint registrars, from June 15 to June 30 have been adjourned to corresponding dates between August 6 to 25 respectively.

matters listed in district courts during this period will also be adjourned and information will be uploaded on ir website, order said.

"It has furr been resolved that with effect from June 16, all subordinate courts, shall take up urgent cases (except where evidence is to be recorded) of ir respective courts through video conferencing mode," it said.

Earlier, less benches were set up to hear urgent matters through video conferencing.

To ensure that more urgent matters are taken up, it was decided that from May 22 all judges of high court would sit every day to take up important cases via videoconferencing.

re are presently seven division benches and 18 single-judge benches in high court.

Earlier, High Court had on March 25 restricted its function as well as that of district courts till April 14. It was subsequently extended to May 3, May 17, May 23, May 31 and June 14.

Delhi High Court Chief Justice D N Patel at an event on Saturday also said restricted functioning of courts, due to COVID-19 pandemic, would be extended "for some time more".

"During this COVID pandemic, of course we are t opening court and this decision we are taking unanimously. We are extending (present form of functioning) for some time more and we are hopeful that physical opening of court will be done after installing some more facilities at our court,” Justice Patel said while inaugurating Delhi High Court's online e-filing system.

"Tentatively, I am saying that, for 15 days this system (of functioning) will continue from home, but subject to certain changes to be done,” he said.

Explaining advants of new filing system, he said it would help litigants and lawyers to file ir cases and/or related documents from comfort of ir homes and offices or any corner of world without having to come to court premises.

Speaking at a webinar organised by high court for inaugurating new system, Justice Patel said that after switching to paperless format of working, "I am w thinking how I was working on paper when everything is available on a screen before me".

"re are so many advants (of paperless format), that w I do t want to switch over to (older) paper format," he said.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher, head of high court's IT committee which worked to put in place this new system, said new e-filing mechanism was cost effective, environment friendly (being paperless) and convenient.

Justice Shakdher, in his keyte address, referred to high court's journey from " rudimentary st" of using bulky paper files in 2008 to start of e-court endeavour in 2009 and rapid transformation that took place between 2013 to 2015 when three jurisdictions -- company law, taxation and arbitration -- became completely paperless.

He also laid out or advants of new filing system, like t having to meet 12.00 pm and 4.00 pm deadlines to file a case, and said that new facility would be accessible all 24 hours of every day of week.

"Because of COVID, we were challenged in terms of our capacity to hear matters and our IT team has stood up to challenge and upscaled our IT capacity so much so that all judges of high court are conducting matters via video conferencing," he said.

Justice Shakdher furr said," whole purpose of project at end of day is to increase access  and t diminish it".

For those who do t have infrastructure for online e-filing, e-sewa kendras (desks) have been set up in various districts  to help lawyers and litigants to e-file ir case and/or related documents, Justice Shakdher said.