Written By: Satata Karmakar | Updated : April 13, 2021 8:40 AM IST
SC Judges To Function From Home, After Members Tests COVID Positive
Amid a sudden surge in the number of daily coronavirus cases, the Supreme Court judges have decided that they would hold court from their residences on Monday and the benches would sit one hour late from their scheduled time in the morning as around 44 staffers have tested positive for coronavirus, sources said. On some media reports which suggested that around 50 per cent of Supreme Court staffers have tested positive for COVID-19, an apex court official said only 44 employees got infected in the last week.
There are around 3,000 staffers working in the apex court. While some judges had been coming to the apex court premises to hold court, few others have been presiding over proceedings from their residences till now. Amid the rise in COVID-19 cases, the apex court has come out with two separate notifications. One of them said the benches, which used to assemble at 10.30 AM and 11 AM, would assemble one hour late from their scheduled time on Monday.
All judges would hear cases through video conferencing from their residences and in the meanwhile, entire court premises, including courtrooms, are being sanitized. The other notification suspended physical mentioning of cases for urgent hearing by advocates from Monday till further orders.
India hit a new coronavirus infection record with 1,68,912 new cases, the highest single-day rise so far, taking the total tally of cases to 1,35,27,717, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The national COVID-19 recovery rate has fallen below 90 per cent. The active cases have surpassed the 12-lakh mark, while the death toll increased to 1,70,179 with 904 daily new fatalities, the highest since October 18, 2020, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Registering a steady increase for the 33rd day in a row, the active cases have increased to 12,01,009 comprising 8.88 per cent of the total infections, while the recovery rate has further dropped to 89.86 per cent.
The 904 new fatalities include 349 from Maharashtra, 122 from Chhattisgarh, 67 from Uttar Pradesh, 59 from Punjab, 54from Gujarat, 48 from Delhi, 40 from Karnataka, 24 from Madhya Pradesh, 22 from Tamil Nadu, 21 from Jharkhand, 16 each from Kerala and Haryana and 10 each from Rajasthan and West Bengal.
A total of 1,70,179 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 57,987 from Maharashtra, 12,908 from Tamil Nadu, 12,889 from Karnataka, 11,283 from Delhi, 10,400 from West Bengal, 9,152 from Uttar Pradesh, 7,507 from Punjab, and 7,300 from Andhra Pradesh. The health ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.
"Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research," the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.
