[Breaking] COVID-19: Delhi High Court cancels summer vacation to make up for the loss of working hours, Courts in Delhi to function in June

To make up for the loss of court working hours due to COVID-19 lockdown, the Delhi High Court has resolved to cancel summer break for the year. .Delhi High court and its subordinate courts shall thus function during the entire month of June 2020..Coronavirus Lockdown: Functioning of Delhi High Court, its subordinate courts suspended till April 15.The decision was taken by the Full Court of the High Court today in order to ensure restoration of normalcy in the functioning of the courts at the earliest..The relevant part of the Full Court resolution reads:“Since during the period of suspension of work, the hearing is limited to the matters of extremely urgent nature or urgent nature, there is negligible fresh filing of cases, lesser disposal and corresponding escalation in arrears, resulting in extreme hardship to litigants.In view of the severe hardship faced by the litigants due to the prevailing pandemic of COVID-19 that has impaired the functioning of the courts, it has been unanimously resolved by the Full Court that to make up for the loss of court working hours and to ensure restoration of normalcy in the functioning of the courts at the earliest, in modification of the resolution of the Full Court dated 16.09.2019, declaring the period of the Summer vacations for this Court and the Courts subordinate thereto in the month of June 2020, this Court and courts subordinate thereto shall continue functioning during the entire month of June i.e. from 01.06.2020 to 30.06.2020. It is hoped and expected that members of the Bar shall extend their full cooperation in making the functioning of the courts meaningful and purposeful during the month of June 2020.”.The Delhi High Court Bar Association has urged its members and the legal fraternity to co-operate in this time of emergent national crisis..In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, the High Court has been hearing only urgent matters since March 16. .Consequently, all the pending matters were adjourned en bloc.. All sub-ordinate courts in the city have also been hearing only urgent matters to contain the risk of COVID-19 contagion. .As per the High Court's order, this period of suspension is being treated as the closure of court under Section 4 of the Limitation Act..Coronavirus Lockdown: Functioning of Delhi High Court, its subordinate courts suspended till April 15.Breaking: Interim orders by Delhi High Court, lower courts, subsisting as on March 16, automatically extended till May 15.All interim orders passed by the Delhi High Court and its subordinate courts, which were subsisting as on March 16 and are likely to expire or have already expired, have already been extended till May 15, 2020, or until further orders..[COVID-19 Lockdown] Telangana High Court, subordinate courts to hear only urgent matters until April 30, Summer Vacation 2020 cancelled .Recently, the Telangana High Court also decided to cancel this year's summer vacation. .Meanwhile, President of Supreme Court Bar Association, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave has once again urged the Supreme Court to suspend summer break. .Coronavirus: SCBA urges CJI to declare four-week vacation for Supreme Court for wellbeing of all stakeholders.Speaking to Bar & Bench, Dave said, "The decisions by some Honble High Courts including the Delhi HC resolving to cancel Summer Vacations in respective Courts including subordinate courts thereunder, are praiseworthy and need to be applauded by all Stakeholders in the Administration of Justice. I truly wish that Honble Supreme Court of India will take similar step . The EC of the SCBA had resolves accordingly weeks ago and requested Honble the CJI and Other Honble Judges to resolve accordingly . However so far this has not happened. Any such secession will only ameliorate grave hardships being felt by thousands of Litigants who are awaiting their turn for hearing of their cases pending before the Highest Court and who need Justice. Loss of working days in March and April need to be compensated for their sake as also for the sake of the Bar especially Young and Needy Lawyers who have been deprived of their work due to this greatest challenge being faced by Humanity across the World . I earnestly call upon the Honble Chief Justice of India and his companion Honble Judges to rise to the occasion and cancel Summer Vacation to compensate for the time lost.".Follow Bar and Bench channel on WhatsAppDownload the Bar and Bench Mobile app for instant access to the latest legal news.