Delhi HC, District Courts to Resume Complete Physical Hearings from Nov 22

New Delhi, Oct 29 (PTI) The Delhi High Court and the district courts will resume complete physical hearings from November 22 while continuing to give an option to parties to request for video conferencing mode, said the high court registry Friday.

The registry, in two separate office orders, stated that the existing system of restricted physical hearings will continue for the high court and district courts till November 18 and November 20, respectively.

The Hon’ble Full Court has been pleased to order that the existing mechanism of hearings in this Court shall continue till November 18, 2021. There shall be a complete resumption of physical courts w.e.f. November 22, 2021. The Courts shall, however, permit hybrid/video conferencing hearing where a request to such effect is made by any of the parties and/order their counsel, said the official order for the high court by Registrar General Manoj Jain.

The existing mechanism of hearing matters in the district courts in Delhi shall continue till November 20, 2021, and there shall be a complete resumption of physical courts w.e.f November 22, 2021. The court shall, however, permit hybrid/video conferencing hearing where a request to such effect is made by any of the parties and/order their counsel , said the office order for the district courts.

In March 2020, the high court had started holding proceedings through video conferencing following the outbreak of COVID-19, and subsequently, few benches were allowed to hold physical courts every day on a rotation basis.

Complete physical hearings were resumed in high court from March 15, 2021, but on April 8, it was ordered that matters would be taken up through virtual mode only on account of the second wave.

In August, the high court again announced that it would start physical hearings in a restricted manner from August 31, following which two division benches and 10 single-judge benches conducted proceedings physically and the remaining benches continued to take up matters through video conferencing.

The order permitted the high court to have hybrid/video conferencing hearings on physical hearing dates.

On September 30, the high court had permitted some notified benches to hold court physically with an option to parties to appear through a virtual link.

The district courts were directed to function with three-fourth of their judicial officers sitting physically.