Pinnacle Court agrees plea to revive limitation extension orders regarding covid surge and also four Supreme Court Judges Test Positive, Over 150 Staff In Quarantine
The Top Court today accepted to revive the suo motu orders extending the limitation period for filing cases in Courts and Tribunals, in view of the rising cases of Covid-19 in the country.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana said that it will later pass a detailed order in this regard.
The bench, composed of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant said, “We are accepting the prayer made by the Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association (SCAORA) to restore the orders extending limitation”.
Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal requested that the relaxation should be from October 2, 2021, since the original order of March 2020 was in force until October 1, 2021.
The Bench then requested the Attorney General to submit a note in this regard.
"I have already sent one," the AG responded.
The Court then said that it will look into the same before passing its order.
Advocate Shivaji Jadhav, President SCAORA, submitted that Covid cases have been increasing across the country over the past few days and urged the court to restore the limitation extension orders. Attorney General K.K. Venugopal supported the SCAORA plea.
The SCAORA filed the application in the suo motu case "In Re Cognizance for Extension of Limitation", seeking restoration of the order dated March 23, 2020, and April 27, 2021, through which the limitation period for filing of cases was extended.
Thereafter, several orders were passed further extending the limitation period.
Today in the plea it’s clearly mentioned that considering the alarming rise in the Covid cases, it becomes necessary to restore the relaxation with regard to the period of limitation.
In the otherwise; four Supreme court judges have tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) so far;
Around 150 staff members have also been infected as the Covid-19 situation is worsening in the country.
However, it was learnt that one of the judges who had a mild fever during the event had mixed freely with all the judges. The said judge reportedly tested positive on Thursday and was admitted to the hospital.
According to Supreme Court sources, a judge who had fever had attended a farewell party of Justice R Subhash Reddy on Tuesday. His Covid result came positive after that.
On Thursday, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana and four other senior judges held a meeting on the ongoing pandemic situation. "Unfortunately, again the problem has started and we are also conscious of this.... It seems we may not be able to hear cases through physical mode for the next four to six weeks," the CJI had said.
The Supreme Court had already switched to virtual mode due to the emerging third wave of Covid-19 in the country. In the wake of the rising number of cases of omicron variant of Covid19, the top court had decided to conduct all hearings through virtual mode for two weeks with effect from 3rd January 2021. However, later the CJI said that the court will not return to a physical hearing for at least 4-6 weeks.
Covid-19 cases in India have risen sixfold in the seven days. Today, the country logged nearly 1.80 lakh cases of infections in the last 24 hours, which pushed India's infection tally to 3,57,07,727.
