Staff Reporter :
A total of 12 judges of Appellate and High Court divisions of the Supreme Court have been infected with Covid-19 virus. In this circumstance, Chief Justice Hasan Foez Siddique has indicated that they might resume virtual function of the courts.
At the starting of court functioning on Monday morning the chief Justice said, “At present 12 of our judges are affected by Corona virus. It has become difficult to manage the court proceedings. If the situation worsens, it seems that the virtual court will have to be run again.”
When the Chief Justice sought the cooperation of the lawyers, Attorney General AM Amin Uddin said that there would be all kinds of cooperation in running the court.
Two people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours till 8.00 am on Monday, said a press release issued by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). At least 2,101 new Covid-19 cases were recorded during the period.
The total number of Covid-19 deaths in the country now stands at 29,142 and the death rate stands at 1.48 percent. The current positivity rate is 15.20 percent while the total positivity rate stands at 13.75 percent.
All the courts in the country were declared closed for the first time in March in 2020 due to the Corona virus outbreak. After that, the activities of the judiciary were completely stopped for about two months.
In the face of the demands of the justice seeking people and the lawyers finally a law was enacted to launch the judicial activities through virtual process. After enacting the law the first virtual court was introduced in the Supreme Court on May 10 that year.
Due to the awfulness of the Corona virus situation, only a few virtual courts were functional initially. Later some physical courts were also opened considering the interest of the lawyers following the health guidelines.
On December 1 in 2021, the Supreme Court resumed its trial proceedings with direct physical presence instead of virtual process when different countries of the world were imposing new lockdown in their cities due to spread of the new variants of Covid-19.
