New Delhi, Nov 9 (PTI) The Delhi High Court Tuesday said there is an apprehension of rise in COVID-19 cases and the infrastructure for hybrid hearings in district courts and other quasi judicial bodies here must be in place.

“Our anxiety is the same. Again there is an apprehension that there may be an increase in the number of cases. The apprehension is...by that time, everything should be in place. It has to be done on a quicker footing. It can't take so long,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh said.

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The high court was hearing two pleas by lawyers Anil Kumar Hajelay and Manashwy Jha seeking various prayers including conducting hybrid hearings in district courts on physical hearing days because of the COVID-19 threat.

Earlier, the high court had said that it was “rather curious” as to how a “revised estimate” of over Rs 79 crore was arrived at by the PWD officials and then forwarded to the Finance Department of the Delhi government without the involvement of experts from the field of information technology (IT).

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It had noted that an earlier estimate of over Rs 220 crore, which was submitted by the high court registry to the Delhi government, was brought down to Rs 79.48 crore on account of lowered specifications of the infrastructure proposed to be installed for hybrid hearings.

During Tuesday's hearing, Delhi government counsel submitted that a meeting of IT Department is scheduled for today itself or tomorrow on the issue of not approving the estimate.

He assured the court that the government will come up with a detailed report on the meetings.

He said another meeting of additional chief secretary of Delhi government is also scheduled today to discuss on the issue of which quasi judicial bodies need hybrid hearing facilities.

The court granted time to the Delhi government file a status report in compliance of its earlier order and listed the matter for further hearing on December 13.

The court had earlier sought to know the exact time when the system would be set in place in the trial courts, saying that the purpose of the exercise was to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to advocates and litigants in case a third wave of COVID-19 pandemic comes.

The court had then directed the Delhi government to place on record its status report regarding sanctioning of Rs 79.48 crore for setting up infrastructure for the hybrid system in the subordinate courts here.

“The bird view is that if at all the third wave of the pandemic comes, people shall not be required to go to courts and the hybrid system shall be put in place,” it had said.

It had made it clear to the Delhi government that if the proposal to set up infrastructure for hybrid hearings in trial courts and quasi-judicial bodies is turned down on grounds of expenditure, it will examine expenses incurred by it on subsidies and public advertisements from April 2020. It had also directed the Delhi government to take expeditious steps to provide proper infrastructure for the purpose and said it was mindful that the authorities incur huge money on subsidies and advertisements. The court had in March asked its Registrar General to assess the infrastructural requirements at the earliest to facilitate hybrid hearings in the trial court and forward the details to the Delhi government.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)