CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has ordered the closure of its courts and offices from Thursday after the detection of a number of positive cases among the staff. In an office order issued on Wednesday, Registrar (Judicial) S K Mishra said the High Court and its offices shall be completely shut down from January 13 to 17 due to the increasing number of cases among the staff.
Offices will resume functioning on January 18. From January 18 to February 4, the High Court will function with two division benches and seven single benches to take up only the exceptionally urgent cases, he added.
Since Monday, the High Court has shifted to the virtual mode for hearing and started functioning with 50 per cent of the staff strength to prevent the spread of Covid-19. Registrar General Chittaranjan Dash also issued standard operating procedure (SOP) on Wednesday which stated that ultra-violet ray machines have been provided for sanitising the case files. All concerned shall keep sanitising these files while sending and receiving them.
“Provision of mandatory thermal check-up shall be made at the entry point to the court and no person having any of the symptoms such as cold, cough, sneezing or fever shall be permitted entry irrespective of identity card or pass issued in his/her favour”, the Registrar General said.
The SOP made it mandatory for all the officials, court staff and advocates entering the High Court premises to wear masks and maintain social distancing. The assistant registrar is to ensure that all sections are sanitised at regular intervals on every working day.
While those on the court premises have been asked to use stairs, the number of persons in the elevator at one time shall be three. Officials and staff while using the lift should stand facing the walls of the lift and not facing each other.