Supreme Court reverts to virtual hearings amid reports of 44 staffers test positive for COVID-19

File pic: Zee News

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has suspended the physical hearing of the cases amid a surge in the number of COVID-19 cases. The judges will conduct proceedings one hour late from their scheduled time from their respective residences on Monday as at least 44 staffers have tested positive for coronavirus, said a report.

Citing Supreme Court sources, the ANI report said that many staff members of the top court are believed to be infected with COVID-19. The top court premises, including courtrooms, are getting sanitised and benches will sit one hour late from the scheduled time.

"The competent authority has been pleased to direct that the physical mentioning of matters before the mentioning registrar shall be suspended till further orders. However, the mentioning of matters through video conferencing mode will continue," Additional Registrar, DEU, reportedly said.

In a notice, the Additional Registrar stated that all the benches which are scheduled to sit at 10:30 am, will sit at 11:30 am and those scheduled to sit at 11 am will sit at 12 noon in Supreme Court, today.

"The special bench comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice Ashok Bhushan constituted in court no. 4 for hearing w.p. (c)no. 940/2017 etc. which is scheduled to sit at 10.30 am will now sit at 11.30 am and the regular benches comprising Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice KM Joseph in court no. 4 and Justice Ashok Bhushan and justice R Subhash Reddy in court no. 7 will sit after the hearing in special bench matters listed in court no. 4 is over. (This is in supersession of earlier notice dated April 11, 2021, issued on this behalf)," the notice added.

Earlier, some media reports suggested that around 50 per cent of Supreme Court staffers have tested positive for COVID-19. There are around 3,000 staffers working in the apex court.

Some judges had been coming to the top court premises to hold court, while few others have been presiding over proceedings from their residences till now.