NEW DELHI,
The Supreme Court faces Covid red alert as the positivity rate among the Judges crossed 12% on Saturday with two more judges testing positive, taking the number of infected ones to four, and more than 150 staff getting quarantined.
A judge who with fever mixed with other judges at the farewell high tea party for Justice R S Reddy on January 4 is suspected to have infected his bench colleague and two other judges. Thus, out of a total working strength of 32 judges, including the CJI, there are as many as four, or 12.5%, who have tested positive.
Under the Graded Response Action Plan (GRAP), a red alert is declared when the positivity rate remains above 5% for two consecutive days. In SC, the positivity rate among Judges have remained above 5% for the last three days and now crossed the 12% mark increasing the worries of CJI N V Ramana, who is constantly monitoring the health of all judges and the staff.
Already more than 150 staff in the SC have been quarantined for either testing positive or because their family members have tested positive for Covid. The fact that five of the eight top officers designated as Registrars, who are in charge of various sections which feed pending cases on a daily basis to the benches for hearing, have also been similarly quarantined.
