Covid-19 impact: SC curtails its summer vacation

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New Delhi, May 15: In light of the limited case hearings in the Supreme Court due to the Covid-19-related nationwide lockdown, the court on Friday decided to curtail the summer vacations and have regular hearing of the cases till 19 June.

A full court meeting was conducted through “circulation of views” and the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde with consensus of other Judges decided that the summer vacations, which is supposed to commence from 18 May, is now postponed, The Mint reported.

The notification read, “The five-week period from 18 May, 2020 to 19 June 2020 (both days inclusive) of the summer vacation of the Supreme Court Calender 2020 has been rescheduled and declared as period of functions.”

In effect, the summer vacation of the apex court has been reduced to two weeks instead of the forty-five day vacation every year. It was earlier scheduled from 15 May to 6 July.

The Supreme Court Bar associations had written a letter to the Chief Justice requesting for the cancellation of the summer vacation due to loss of normal working days as a result of the lockdown due to the ongoing pandemic.

The court has been conducting hearings through video conferencing from 24 March but the hearings have been restricted to urgent matters only.

As per the reports, from Monday the apex court shall increase the number of benches hearing the cases and shall take up more matters for hearing. The judges shall conduct the hearing sitting in the court rooms and advocates shall argue the matters sitting in their chambers through video conferencing.

In April, the Delhi high court had already announced the cancellation of the summer vacation in June to make up for for the loss of working court hours following the lockdown. Besides the high court, the subordinate courts have also been directed to remain open in June.

https://www.livemint.com/news/india/covid-19-impact-sc-curtails-summer-vacations-of-the-court-11589558587165.html

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