New Delhi: A plea was moved in the Delhi High Court on Friday seeking its "intervention" to prevent the spread of coronavirus on its premises by taking precautionary methods like restricting inflow of people, including litigants, and reducing the working hours of the staff.
The petition was mentioned before a bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar which allowed it to be listed on March 16.
"We seek intervention of the court regarding coronavirus outbreak," advocate Rashmi Bansal, who mentioned the plea, said to the bench.
In her petition, Bansal has said that thousands of people, including lawyers, litigants and staff, come to the court everyday and as the COVID-19 virus is contagious, "it is necessary to stop overcrowding and inflow of people in court premises".
She said in her plea that while it would be difficult to keep the court closed, precautionary measures, particularly restrictive entry, should surely be taken.
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"The petitioner seeks appropriate direction from the court to stop the inflow of people in the court premises whose presence is not required and whose interests are being secured by their lawyers, in order to avoid overcrowding...," the petition said.
The Delhi High Court on March 6 had issued an advisory requesting advocates, general public and litigants to adhere to the guidelines issued by the AAP government and to "avoid unnecessary overcrowding in the court premises".
Besides the plea moved by Bansal, a letter petition was sent to the high court by another lawyer seeking urgent measures to contain or prevent the spread of coronavirus on its premises and all the district courts in the national capital.
The letter, by advocate Mohit Kumar Gupta, said the COVID-19 virus is highly contagious and has the capacity to infect more than one person at a time with no vaccine available.
If it spreads to the courts then "justice system for the common man would go out of bounds in actual", the letter said.
"That further, as understood, prevention is the best cure available before the virus contracts an individual and post contraction thereof, isolation/quarantine under medical supervision is the only hope," Gupta added.
Some of the preventive measures suggested in the letter, addressed to Registrar General of the High Court, include a complete embargo on litigants' entry into courts except in special circumstances, restricted entry into court premises and lawyers chambers, easy availability of hand sanitisers and use of masks by security and court staff.
Gupta has also urged the court to order constitution of a team of medical/health care experts from AIIMS and/or other medical institutions located in Delhi, "to undertake pre-assessment of prevailing conditions in court premises, suggest preventive measures and undertake remedial measures, if any".
The lawyer has also suggested appointment of nodal officers to "assist and undertake evacuation measures" in case of virus detection as well as installation of devices like infrared thermal scanners at entry/exit points of the court.
It has also sought directions, to the Delhi government to notify preventive apparatus/items, like N95/R95 face masks and alcohol based hand sanitisers as essential commodities under the Essential Commodities Act, 1955 to ensure their free and fair availability and distribution, to the public at large.
PTI Report
