The Supreme Court on Friday said it will only hear urgent cases from next week to avoid the risk of spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, The Hindustan Times reported. The Union health ministry on Friday confirmed 81 cases of the COVID-19. Out of these, three people in Kerala have recovered, and one man in Karnataka has died due to it. Of the remaining 81, as many as 64 are Indians, 16 Italians and one person is a Canadian national, according to the government.
The notification issued by the Secretary General of the Supreme Court has also restricted the entry of lawyers and litigants into the courtroom. Citing the advisories issued by the health ministry and the World Health Organisation against mass gatherings, the court said, “The Competent Authority has been pleased to direct that the functioning of the Courts shall be restricted to urgent matters with such number of Benches as may be found appropriate.”
“It is hereby notified that no persons except the lawyers who are going to act in the matter, that is, either for argument or for making oral submissions or to assist along with one litigant only, shall be permitted in the courtroom,” it added.
The decision was taken after Chief Justice of India SA Bobde held a meeting with other senior judges and authorities, where they also considered extending the Holi break. The court is currently shut for Holi break with only a vacation bench in order to deal with urgent matters.
The top court has also suspended the practice of lawyers mentioning cases before Bobde, stating that any such request would have to be made before the designated mentioning officer.
Earlier in the day, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in a press briefing said that contact tracing of all the coronavirus cases in India is being “actively pursued” and has led to the identification of more than 4,000 people who were in contact with the patients. These people have been put under surveillance, it added. The government has brought 42,296 passengers under community surveillance. Of these 2,559 were symptomatic and 522 hospitalised, including the 17 foreign nationals, the health ministry said.
The Centre’s decision to invoke the Epidemic Act and the Disaster Management Act “is not a health emergency”, Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal said. “We are trying to support initiative taken by the state in terms of managing the situation.”
Agarwal said states can take action if masks are sold at exorbitant prices. “If need be we will take drastic action on abnormal increase in price of masks,” he added.
On Thursday, the health ministry said people must practice forms of social distancing amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, adding that there was no need to panic as there were adequate facilities available for testing. It further denied there being any evidence that suggests the coronavirus cannot withstand high temperatures and said all facts about it are still under research.
The coronavirus has now infected over 1,32,567 lakh people globally and affected 123 countries, areas or territories, according to the World Health Organization’s latest update. As many as 4,947 people have died across the world so far.
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