HC forms panel to create graded plan for courts functioning post lockdown

The Delhi High Court has constituted a committee, headed its judge, to create a 'graded action plan' for dealing with the challenges, including "a deluge of fresh cases", to be faced by it and the trial courts after the lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus is withdrawn.

The high court said normalcy is not likely to return overnight and the court functioning can be resumed only in a structured or phased manner which would require formulation of a plan in advance keeping in mind social distancing norms and other restrictions.

In a letter to all the district and sessions court judges as also principal judges (family court), the high court said that post-withdrawal of the lockdown there would be an imminent requirement to put in place a 'phased / graded restoration to normalcy plan' for courts in Delhi for which various issues need to be addressed.


The letter said it may not be practicable to open the courts for everyone immediately after the lockdown is lifted as there are over eight lakh cases pending in the district courts here and around 80,000 in the high court.

Delhi High Court Chief Justice D N Patel has constituted a committee, headed by Justice Hima Kohli, for creating a 'Graded Action-Plan' to meet all such challenges and other ancillary issues considering the urgency of the situation.

The April 21 letter, issued by Registrar General Manoj Jain, has asked the district judges to take inputs from their bar associations and send the suggestions to the high court within a week.

Following the lockdown, the functioning of the high court and trial courts have been suspended till May 3 and only the matters of extreme urgency are being heard through video conferencing.