Cuttack: In view of the extension of lockdown period by the Centre, the Orissa High Court on Sunday issued the following modifications regarding its functioning as well as that of subordinate courts.
— The High Court shall function on all five working days of the week with one Division Bench on Tuesday and Thursday and five single benches on each working day of the week till May 15.
— The Judges sitting in Division Bench shall also hold Single Benches after completion of the work of the Division Bench.
— The subordinate courts and their offices falling in the “red zone” shall function only for one hour as per the directions already issued, to take up criminal and civil matters of extremely urgent nature.
— The working of the subordinate courts and their offices falling in the “orange zone” shall function for two hours from 9 am to 11 am except the courts and their offices in Berhampur, Bhubaneswar, Chhatrapur, Koraput (Sadar), Puri (Sadar), where there is no morning sitting, which shall function from 11 am to 1 pm.
— The subordinate courts and their offices falling in the “green zone” shall, starting from usual official hours, function up to the lunch break for two and half hours.
Besides, the court also notified that the morning sitting of the subordinate courts shall be held except in places like Berhampur, Chhatrapur, Bhubaneswar, Koraput (Sadar) and Puri (Sadar) during the summer month/vacation subject to any specific instructions/guidelines with regard to lockdown depending on which zone the area in question falls.
In case any court premises comes within the containment area declared by the state government, the concerned district judge shall have the power to shut down the court for the containment period under intimation to the High Court.
This apart, the High Court also directed its officers and staffs as well as subordinate courts to strictly adhere to the social distancing guidelines during the working hours.
