Keeping in mind the extraordinary circumstances prevalent these days due to Covid-19 pandemic, the following Advisory Protocol has been designed to minimise the scope of physical interaction between the judicial officers (ADJs/ASJs) on duty and other stakeholders, concerning the Central District in Tiz Hazari Courts Complex which can be stated as:
- As and when an advocate/litigant calls up AO (J) to request for urgent listing of a matter, the AO (J), if satisfied that it is a matter of extreme urgency, shall ask the advocate and the litigant to send the complete paper book (bail application or plain and stay application with documents) in pdf format to the dedicated email aojdelhicourts@gmail.com.
- The AOJ shall offer the advocate/litigant to address arguments through video-conferencing via a zoom cloud meeting application.
- If the advocate litigant agrees to address arguments through video-conferencing AOJ, shall fix time, preferably the next day and shall communicate the same to the judicial advocate on duty as well as the prosecutor concerned over the phone as well as by email.
- The AOJ shall transmit the paper book to the judicial officer and the prosecutor on duty by email immediately on receipt thereof. Along with the paper book, the AOJ shall also transmit the email ID of the said advocate litigant and prosecutor concerned to the judicial officer on duty.
- On the day and time fixed for hearing, the judicial officer shall log in zoom application and shall send the URL to the advocate/ litigant/prosecutor through zoom itself, on receipt whereof the advocate/litigant/prosecutor shall join the video-conferencing.
- During the said video- conferencing, the stenographer of the judicial officer shall also be made to join from her/his home.
- Either in presence of both sides or soon after the arguments, the judicial officer shall dictate the order to the stenographer over the phone call or video-conferencing.
- The stenographer shall, after typewriting the order, send the same by email to the judicial officer, who shall sign the same after taking the printout or shall append digital signature on the same and shall send either the digitally assigned order or scanned copy of the signed order by email to the AOJ on the dedicate email.
- The AOJ shall immediately transmit the digitally signed order or the scanned copy of the signed order to the concerned advocate/litigant/prosecutor and shall also send the same to the computer branch for being uploaded.
- It is clarified that the above procedure shall be adopted only with the consent of all stakeholders and hearings may be allowed only in case of extreme urgency.
The same has been issued in the directions of the Supreme Court which held a meeting with the Chief Justices of the High Courts last week for utilising the digital methods in the field of the judiciary.
On April 04, 2020, the Delhi High Court issued further directions to streamline the process of mentioning during the lockdown period. Because of the nationwide lockdown to contain the further spread of novel coronavirus, COVID-19, the functioning of the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts have been suspended till April 15, 2020.
