3 Delhi High Court Judges Test Positive For Covid-19, DHCBA To Keep Office Closed

New Delhi, Apr 12: While 3 judges of the Delhi High Court have tested positive for the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), the Delhi High Court Bar Association has decided to close its office at the court premises in light of the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital.

The judges are isolating at their residences, according to sources at the court. The 3 judges, who are suffering from mild symptoms, received their test reports yesterday. They are not conducting court today in this light.

The Delhi High Court had resumed full-fledged physical hearing from Mar 15, amid demands by members of the Delhi High Court Bar Association and others citing variousm issues with the hybrid mode of hearing - including that many junior advocates at the Bar had been affected due to the non-functioning of courts physically.

After hearing arguments on the issue, the court had ordered on Mar 9 for virtual mode of hearing to be available only in exceptional cases, and not as a general rule. The Court had also ordered that physical non-availability in Delhi NCR would not be permitted to be an exceptional circumstance, unless the judge was satisfied otherwise - a question to be decided on case to case basis. This order was reversed by the Supreme Court which held that applications for hybrid hearings were to be decided more

"compassionately".Recently, the High Court reverted back to the virtual mode of proceedings, with a Full Bench ordering the same to be operational from Apr 9 to Apr 23 - in view of snowballing of the number of Covid-19 cases in the national capital. Delhi recorded 10,774 fresh Covid-19 cases on Sunday, the highest single-day spike so far, and 48 deaths.

Earlier, a judge of the Delhi High Court during a hearing had remarked that he would not be able to hear the matter at length on the day as he had taken his Covid-19 jab a day before and was advised rest.