Nishka Srinivas Veluvali
Published On: February 08, 2022 at 16:31 IST
The Supreme Court has decided to resume with the physical hearings partially, as the Omicron variant of the COVID – 19 is being under control.
The circular issued by the Secretary General stated that the Chief Justice of India NV Ramana after consulting the Committee of Judges has decided to revive the Modified SOP that was notified on October 7, 2021.
As per this SOP, “All the matters listed on Thursday and Fridays will be heard only via physical mode whereas on Tuesdays there will be an option to request either for physical or virtual mode of hearings. However, there will restriction on the count of counsel allowed in the Courtroom”.
The Supreme Court will be turning back to the physical mode of hearing from February 14, 2022 under the regulations of Modified SOP.
The third wave of COVID – 19 had impacted the operations of the Court with more than dozens of Judges and a huge number of registry employees testing positive for the virus.
This situation compelled the Court to call off all the two – day per week physical hearings it had initiated after a long period.
The Supreme Court has been considering the Cases in the virtual mode since the nation – wide lockdown induced because of the outbreak of the virus COVID – 19.