Technical snag delays hearing of plea of HIV positive prisoner seeking bail in Delhi High Court

A technical snag, which cropped up during proceedings conducted through video conferencing in the Delhi High Court, led to a delay in the hearing of plea of an HIV positive prisoner seeking to be released on interim bail for 90 days as he fears catching coronavirus in jail.

The technical fault occurred with the mike of the Delhi government counsel on Monday due to which he was not audible to judges and the advocate for the prisoner after which the matter was adjourned for Wednesday.

"There is a technical fault with the mike of Ravi Nayak, counsel for NCT of Delhi. He is not audible. Hence hearing cannot be completed. List on April 22,” a bench of Justices Jayant Nath and Prateek Jalan said in its brief order.

The court was hearing the interim bail plea of a murder convict on grounds that he was suffering from HIV stage-II and was vulnerable to being infected with COVID-19 in jail.

Advocate K Singhal, representing the convict, said the video conferencing was being conducted through 'Cisco WebEx' software and initially the government counsel's voice was clear but later on, he was not audible.

While the judges were conducting proceedings from their residence, the two advocates joined the hearing from their respective houses.

The hearing went on for around 15 minutes and later it was adjourned to April 22, he said, adding that this could happen with anyone and no one was at fault.

Singhal informed that the man's wife and daughter were also HIV positive and on March 15, the high court had suspended his sentence for two weeks to consult and receive treatment at the Indraprastha Apollo Hospital here.

Jail authorities were also taking him for treatment to various government hospitals.

On April 3, the man again approached the high court seeking extension of the period of interim suspension of sentence by 60 days, which was rejected by the high court. Thereafter, he file a fresh plea which is pending in the court.