Four Supreme Court judges test positive for COVID

NEW DELHI: Four Supreme Court judges who were conducting regular proceedings till Monday have reportedly been tested positive for COVID. One of the judges got admitted to AIIMS in New Delhi.

As Justice NV Ramana is about to take charge as the 48th Chief Justice of India on Saturday, the SC has sent the names of 15 more judges, who would attend the oath-taking ceremony, for the RT-PCR test as per the protocol of Rashtrapati Bhavan.

As per the reports from the sources, the rate of COVID-19 infection among the Supreme Court registry too has been rising steadily.

Justice Indira Banerjee in one of her hearings had remarked recently that the judges of the top court were short-staffed as staff members were in quarantine due to COVID-19.

Justice MR Shah too had stated in open court that his staff had tested positive and that these were indeed "troubling times."

Earlier this month, over 40 staffers of the top court had tested positive for novel coronavirus infection.

On April 13, the apex court's Registry came out with an official order which allowed officials to work from home if they were not required to attend office on a given day. It also said that if any employee or any member of his family is tested positive for the COVID-19 or has symptoms such as cough, cold and fever for more than three days, then he/she will have to inform the concerned department of the same for the purpose of contact tracing.

Further, the Supreme Court has decided that from April 22 it will hear only cases involving urgency.