HC writes to district courts to have plan on place for when lockdown is lifted

The Delhi high court has written to the district courts listing steps that should be taken under its “phased/graded restoration to normalcy plan”, once the lockdown

The Delhi high court has written to the district courts listing steps that should be taken under its “phased/graded restoration to normalcy plan”, once the lockdown is lifted, including the categorisation of urgent cases for hearing.

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The registrar general of the high court, Manoj Jain, on the instructions of chief justice DN Patel, has also written to the Delhi high court bar association and the bar council of Delhi chairman KC Mittal. ustice DN Patel has also constituted a committee to look into the matter.

He said post the lockdown, there would be a deluge of cases, the handling of which would pose a big challenge to the justice system. Jain said it may not be practical to open the courts to everyone immediately once the lockdown is lifted.

“There are more than 8 lakh cases pending in district courts and another 80,000 in the high court. Since the said number is huge, the footfall in courts would be evidently enormous, once the lockdown is lifted, partially or otherwise. Moreover, because of the suspended functioning of courts, most matters could not be filed by many advocates and litigants. Therefore the moment the courts are thrown open, it would be difficult to control the rush for the purposes of ensuring social distancing. Obviously, courts cannot be converted into hot spots,” the letter said said.

Highlighting that normalcy cannot be achieved overnight, Jain said gradual expansion would be key, by listing out well-defined categories of priority cases. It should be ensured that proportionate court infrastructure is available during all these phases till restoration of complete normalcy.

Jain said guidelines should be made for restricting the entry into courts and social distancing norms should be followed by all, including judges, lawyers, court staff and litigants.

Guidelines should be prepared by all district courts for restricting entry into lawyers’ chambers while also ensuring that infrared thermometers, masks, gloves, sanitisers etc are available for everyone.

Jain said permanent video conferencing court rooms should be prepared for holding hearings with an emphasis on e-filing, e-issuance and e-service of court notices