COVID-19: Supreme Court issues SoP for Physical Hearings [Read Notice]

In wake of bringing normalcy back, the Supreme Court has issued Standard Operating Procedure for physical hearing of matters.

The SoP has came out after a 7-judge Committee suggested of the Supreme Court had recommended resumption of physical hearings in a limited manner earlier this month.

The SoP at very first mentions that on an experimental basis, a pilot scheme will be initiated under which physical hearing of matters shall initially commence in three Court-rooms and eventually, number of matters or the number of Court-rooms may be increased or reduced, as the situation may warrant or permit.

To practice Social Distancing on a serious note, only a limited number of Advocates/ parties in person shall be allowed to enter in the Courtroom at any given time and if the number of parties is more, then only one AOR and one Arguing Counsel per party will be allowed to enter.

'Special Hearing Passes' will be issued by the Registry for entry into High Security Zone on the basis of authorization by the concerned AOR.

On completion of hearing of their respective case, the Ld. Advocates/Parties-in-Person/Clerks, etc. shall move out of the High Security Zone through the movement corridor and exit from the designated gates

Volunteers shall be present to provide guidance on turn-wise entry into the designated Court Room for hearing.

The entry into and exit from each Court Room shall be by separate doors.

Wearing of mask, frequent use of hand sanitizer and maintaining physical distancing norms is mandatory for all entrants into the Supreme Court premises.

Ld. Advocates/Parties-in-Person having more than one case shall be issued separate Special Hearing Pass for each case and after hearing of one case is complete, they may wait in the designated staging/waiting areas for the purpose for appearing for the next hearings.

Read Notice Here: