COVID-19: Functioning of Delhi HC, district courts restricted until August 31

'A comprehensive plan on the above lines will be prepared by the undersigned (Registrar General) and placed before the 'Committee for Preparation of Graded Action Plan' and thereafter, before the Full Court for consideration,' an office order issued by Registrar General Manoj Jain said.

PTI

August 15, 2020 / 18:47 IST

Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court decided on August 15 to restrict its functioning as well as that of the district courts only to urgent matters till August 31 in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Administrative and General Supervision Committee of the high court, headed by Chief Justice D N Patel, also directed that subject to complete availability of public transport and the situation in Delhi remaining stable, a plan be evolved for a gradual opening of physical courts from September 1 onwards.

"To begin with, on experimental basis, around one-fourth of the courts can resume physical functioning on a rotational basis while the rest can continue taking up matters through video-conferencing.

"A comprehensive plan on the above lines will be prepared by the undersigned (Registrar General) and placed before the 'Committee for Preparation of Graded Action Plan' and thereafter, before the Full Court for consideration," an office order issued by Registrar General Manoj Jain said.

Earlier, the high court had restricted its functioning and that of the district courts till August 14.

The office order issued on Saturday further said the courts of registrars and joint registrars have been directed not to pass any adverse order in non-urgent or routine matters, where the advocate or litigant concerned is unable to join the proceedings through video-conferencing, till the time the physical functioning of the courts resumes.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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