The Delhi High Court has issued a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for resumption of physical hearings with effect from September 1, 2020.

Roster of sitting of Judges for taking physical courts for the period of September 1 till Septe,ber 14 has also been released and is attached at the end of this report.

It has been intimated that Five Benches of the High Court shall start holding physical hearings on rotational basis. Further, the Court will observe suspended functioning till September 30 and all pending matters listed between September 1 and September 30 shall stand adjourned to specified dates between November 3 and December 7, 2020.

The High Court has further intimated that remaining Benches shall continue to take up matters through video conferencing. Therefore, at the time of e-filing, the concerned Advocate shall clearly mention in the prescribed slot whether such Advocate desires the matter to be heard through videoconferencing or through physical mode.

Matters to be Heard

The Courts, whether conducting proceedings through physical mode or through videoconferencing, shall take up following matters as per the roster:

• Urgent matters
• Non-urgent matters filed during the lock-down.
• Regular matters where the consent for final hearing has been received from both the sides.

Who can Enter

Entry into the court block, for the purposes of attending physical hearings and VC hearings shall stand restricted to:

• Only one Advocate per party whose vakalatnama is on record or who has been duly authorized by such Advocate to appear and whose case is listed for hearing that day.
• Senior Counsel engaged by any such Advocate.
• Registered Clerk
• Standing/Nominated counsel
• Party-in-person

Juniors, Interns, law students or Non-registered clerks shall not be allowed to enter the court blocks.

Staggered Entry

• Entry time to any court block shall be regulated as per the time slots mentioned in the cause list for different batches of cases.
• There would be a break between hearing of each batch of cases in order to facilitate the sanitization of the courtrooms and other areas.
• Entry in the court-room shall be permitted to those Advocates/ party-in-person whose matter is called out for hearing and also for the Advocates whose item is the immediate next, subject to availability of space.
• Ordinarily, no request for pass over shall be entertained to ensure adherence to time slots, effectively regulating the entry and orderly conduct of cases.

System of Mentioning

• The existing system of mentioning of urgent matters through the designated link shall be continued till further orders.
• All the urgent matters be filed through online e-filing module only. Reasons for urgency be very clearly specified.