COVID-19: Delhi HC, district courts functioning restricted till May 31

New Delhi: Restrictions on the functioning of the Delhi High Court and district courts will remain in place till May 31 in view of COVID-19 and only urgent matters will be heard.

Earlier the restrictions were in place till May 23.

The Administrative and General Supervision Committee of the High Court, headed by Chief Justice D N Patel, decided that restrictions would be in place till May 31 and that urgent matters would continue to be heard by video conferencing.

"...the functioning of the High Court of Delhi shall continue to remain suspended till May 31 on same terms," the administrative order said.

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

The order said all the cases listed in the high court, including before the registrars and joint registrars, from May 26 to 30 have been adjourned to corresponding dates between July 21 and July 25 respectively.

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

Till now, there were two division benches and 10 single benches to hear urgent matters through video conferencing.

To ensure more urgent matters are taken up, it has been decided that from Friday all the judges of the high court would sit everyday to take up important cases via videoconference.

The Delhi High Court and the lower courts together took up 20,726 urgent matters during the COVID-19 lockdown from March 24 to May 19.

There are presently seven division benches and 19 single-judge benches in the high court.

Earlier, the high court had on March 25 restricted its and district courts' functioning till April 14. It was then extended to May 3, May 17 and subsequently till May 23.