The newly appointed Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna on Tuesday refused to make courts in Delhi-NCR completely virtual in wake of severe spike in pollution in the national capital.
Senior Advocate and President of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Kapil Sibal requested the bench headed by the CJI to allow all lawyers to appear online amidst high air pollution in Delhi. While making the request Sibal said that the pollution in Delhi was "getting out of control." Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta and Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan also made the requests for switching to complete online mode till the pollution is under control in Delhi.
CJI Khanna however said that the courts can function on hybrid mode and lawyers have option of attending courts physically or virtually.
CJI further assured that no case will be dismissed for absence of lawyers' in courtroom. When SG Tushar Mehta requested for total virtual mode, the CJI said that at present courts would function in hybrid mode.
On Monday, another bench of the Supreme Court ordered that the schools will remain shut in the entire Delhi NCR, and GRAP 4 restrictions will remain till further orders from the top court. The Supreme Court censured Commission for Air Quality Management (CAQM) over delayed imposition of graded response action plan (GRAP) 3 and 4 restrictions.
While schools in Delhi have stopped physical classes for Classes 1 to 9 and Class 11, the top court also asked Delhi and NCR states to take a call on online classes for all students and inform them by Friday.
The top court will again hear the matter on Friday.
Delhi is witnessing one of its worst days in terms of air quality. The average air quality index (AQI) in Delhi on early morning in Tuesday was recorded to be 492. However, the AQI at some placed in NCR including Alipur, Anand Vihar, Bawana, Narela, Pusa and Sonia Vihar touched 500.
Among the 38 air quality monitoring stations, 21 of them observed an AQI of 490 or above.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a yellow alert for moderate-to-dense fog conditions in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR).