SC benches to sit an hour late from listed time as Covid-19 state worsens

Supreme Court benches would sit one hour late from their schedule time in the morning on Monday as many staffers have tested positive for coronavirus, sources said

Supreme Court judges would hold court from their residences on Monday and the benches would sit one hour late from their schedule time in the morning as around 44 staffers have tested positive for coronavirus, sources said.

On some media reports which suggested that around 50 per cent Supreme Court staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, an apex court official said only 44 employees got infected in the last one week.

There are around 3,000 staffers working in the apex court.

While some judges had been coming to the apex court premises to hold court, few others have been presiding over proceedings from their residences till now.

Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, the apex court has come out with two separate notifications.

One of them said the benches, which used to assemble at 10.30 AM and 11 AM, would assemble one hour late from their schedule time on Monday.

All judges would hear cases through video conferencing from their residences and in the meanwhile, entire court premises, including courtrooms, are being sanitised.

The other notification suspended physical mentioning of cases for urgent hearing by advocates from Monday till further orders.