SC Bar Association urges CJI to resume physical hearing in top court

Keeping in view the fact that there is a dip in COVID19 cases in Delhi the Supreme Court Bar Association SCBA on Saturday wrote to Chief Justice of India NV Ramana urging him to resume physical hearing in the Supreme Court with strict compliance with COVID19 protocols and appropriate behaviourSCBA President and senior advocate Vikas Singh in the letter to the CJI said considering that the pandemic in the country has been very much in control in the last two weeks requested for the opening of the top court in physical modeThe letter stated that the Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA has decided to reopen schools colleges and gyms in Delhi with effect from February 7 and offices are now allowed to function with a 100 per cent capacity It added that in Delhi the positivity rate has come down to 385 per cent as of dateThe position on February 4 2022 as far as COVID19 bed occupancy is concerned is that in hospitals out of 15426 COVID beds only 1200 ie 778 per cent are occupied In the dedicated COVID Care Centre out of 4626 beds only 138 beds ie 298 per cent are occupied and in the dedicated COVID Health Centre of the 198 beds only 5 beds ie 253 per cent are occupiedConsidering the above situation the Delhi Disaster Management Authority DDMA has decided to reopen schools colleges and gyms in Delhi with effect from February 7 2022 Offices are now allowed to function with a 100 per cent capacity and gyms will open with restrictions the DDMA order added Schools for nursery to class 8 will reopen from February 14 it addedIn these circumstances there is no justification to not open the Supreme Court for full physical hearing on all 5 days forthwith the letter stated The letter further said As has been demonstrated in the earlier phase of physical hearing in NovemberDecember 2021 the lawyers will continue wearing their masks and abide by the Covid protocol as long as the same is in placeThe hearing in open Court is both the convention and the constitutional requirement in the Supreme Court It is therefore requested that physical hearing in Supreme Court be resumed forthwith as it was prepandemic it said In view of the rising number of Omicron variants of COVID19 cases during the third wave the apex court on January 2 2022 had decided to shift to the virtual system of hearings from January 3Suspending the physical and hybrid option of the hearing the apex court had decided to shift to a complete virtual hearing By another circular the top court judges decided to work from their residential officesThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever