Have not issued notice stating proceedings would be held only via virtual mode: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said it has not issued any notice stating that its functioning would be conducted exclusively through the virtual mode from April 6 to April 17.

A clarification sent out by the office of the Registrar General of the High Court said that no such notice, which was being circulated amongst various groups, has been issued by it.

Besides stating that the court's functioning would be exclusively through the virtual mode, the notice in question had also said that entry into the high court premises was strictly prohibited.

The high court had commenced complete physical functioning from March 15 onwards.

Subsequently, it had said that virtual or hybrid proceedings would be held on the request of lawyers.

Following the outbreak of Covid-19 in March last year, the court was holding proceedings through video conferencing. Its functioning was restricted to urgent matters from March 16 last year.

Thereafter, from March 25 last year, the functioning of the high court and district courts was further restricted and no physical hearing was being conducted due to the spread of Covid-19.

Subsequently, from September last year a few benches started holding physical courts everyday on a rotation basis.

Some of them, thereafter, also started holding hybrid proceedings, wherein lawyers have the option to attend the hearing via video conference instead of appearing in person.