In light of the coronavirus crisis, the Supreme Court issued a notice on Sunday announcing that only the Chief Justice's court will sit on Monday, 23 March to hear cases.
All other hearings that were scheduled to take place before the apex court have been cancelled and the cases adjourned indefinitely.
Following this, no matters will be heard for the coming week, though two judges will be available to hear urgent cases.
Some matters will also be listed for Wednesday, 25 March, before one bench of the court, the list of which will be put up on Tuesday.
These matters will be heard via a form of video conferencing, with the lawyers addressing the judges remotely from rooms earmarked for this purpose in the court complex.
Only a limited number of judges had been scheduled to hear cases on Monday following preventive measures taken by the Supreme Court, apart from the CJI's court.
Justices Arun Mishra, Deepak Gupta and MR Shah were to hear matters in Court 2, Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, KM Joseph and Sanjiv Khanna were scheduled to hear matters in Court 8 and Justice Surya Kant was to hear chamber matters in Court 14. Now none of these matters will be heard.
CJI SA Bobde will hear 8 cases along with Justices L Nageswara Rao and Surya Kant from 11 am onwards, in the usual fashion.
In what appears to be a trial run for the rest of the week, three cases will be heard by the CJI and Justice DY Chandrachud via a form of video conferencing on Monday.
Advocates appearing in matters 9-11 have been instructed to address the judges from a monitoring room in the court complex, rather than appearing before them in person.
As of 22 March, the Karnataka High Court and Bombay High Court have moved over to video conferencing, asking parties to share Skype details with the registrars of their courts to arrange for this.
It is unclear exactly how long Supreme Court proceedings will be cancelled or restricted, beyond this week. The court has issued a circular noting that the Registry will be closed till 28 March, though it's officers will be working from home.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)