In view of lockdown in Bihar, entry to Patna HC complex restricted

The Patna High Court has issued a notice stating that the entry to the Court complex shall be restricted to a few authorised persons and other people including staff are not required to come to the office from July 16 till July 23 in view of the lockdown in the state.

"In view of the lockdown in the State of Bihar from 16.07.2020 under order dated 14.07.2020 issued by the Home Department, Government of Bihar also looking extraordinary situation, the entry to the Court complex shall be restricted to very few authorized persons and other persons including staff are not required to come to the office from July 16, 2020 to July 23, 2020," the notice from the Patna High Court said.

"However, they shall continue to remain at their respective places of residence and shall always keep their mobile phones switched on," the notice read.

It further said, "Registrar (List) and Registrar (IT)-cum-CPC will arrange the work of Virtual Courts for the cases listed so far, with the minimum required hands, preferably facilitating them to work from home. During the aforesaid closure, the Court Officer will ensure proper stization of the entire premises of the Court."

The Bihar government has declared a lockdown in the state from today to July 31 in view of rising COVID-19 cases. During this period essential services will continue and farming and construction-related activities will be allowed.

A state government release said that there is "an alarming surge" in COVID-19 cases in Bihar in the last three weeks and positivity rate has also been considerably high.

It said that places of worship, commercial and private and government establishments would remain closed apart from the exceptions.

The guidelines had said that, while the offices of the central government and its subordinate/autonomous offices will remain closed, services like "defence, central armed police forces, treasury, public utilities (including petroleum, CNG, LPG, PNG), disaster management, power generation and transmission units, post offices, National Informatics Centre, early warning agencies," have been exempted and will continue their services.

Police, home guards, civil defence, fire and emergency services, disaster management and those related to election work and prisons have also been exempted.

( With inputs from ANI )