After over 40 staff members had tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection, the Supreme Court of India has returned back to the new normal of unfolding virtual hearings as the country's highest judicial body has caught up with the grounds of virus spread.  The courtrooms and premises of the apex court are getting fully sanitized due to which various benches had on Monday begun the hearing one hour later than their scheduled time. 

According to reports, around 44 staffers working in the Supreme Court have tested positive for the COVID-19 viral infection. 90 staff members had gone through the tests of which 44 staff members had confirmed to have contracted the pandemic after which the judges decided to hold virtual hearings from their respective residences. 

The apex court has around 3000 staff members working on the premises and the development of dozens of positive cases had shocked the judges and pushed to defer the scheduled hearings for an hour on Monday. The reports say that while some judges had come to the court on Monday, others had conducted the hearings virtually from their residences as the second wave has pushed the apex court to take the baton of new normal. 

On Monday, the court's additional registrar has issued two separate notifications and in one, it has notified about the change in the hearing time. It has said, "Take notice that on 12.04.2021, all the benches which are scheduled to sit at 10.30 am will sit at 11.30 am and those scheduled to sit at 11.00 am will sit at 12.00 noon". In another notice, the apex court said that the physical mentioning of matters before the Supreme Court benches has been halted and it will continue virtually. 

It has been reported that the justices will be holding hearings from their respective residences for the first time in nine months and they will not be coming to the apex court premises to hold the hearings owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. Speaking to an English news agency, Justice DY Chandrachud said that the judicial work will not be affected by the pandemic and the supreme court has adequate infrastructure for judicial work. The court has around 1,600 video-conferencing links. 

The development that the apex court has returned to new normal has come when India reported the highest single-day rise on Monday. In the last 24-hours till Monday morning 8 am, India has reported 1,68,912 fresh cases and it has become the second worst-affected country by the pandemic in the world. According to Reuters, India has overtaken Brazil and had become the second most affected country in the world by the COVID-19 pandemic after the United States. 

With the unprecedented spike, India's overall tally has reached 13.53 million, surpassing Brazil's 13.45 million cases. The United States has been leading the global tally of the most number of cases with 31.2 million cases. According to the Union Health Ministry, India has reported 1,68,912 new cases, 75,086 discharges, and 904 deaths in the last 24 hours. In total, the country has recorded 1,35,27,717 cases so far of which 12,01,009 are active, 1,21,56,529 cases have been discharged, and 1,70,179 people had succumbed to the viral infection.