Corona crisis: HC to hear only urgent cases from today

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court will only hear cases which are urgent in nature from Monday to avoid heavy gathering on its premises as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

The situation will be reviewed on March 20 and the necessary directives may be given later. It has also been advised to reduce gathering as much as possible in other courts in the state.

On Sunday a notification was published by the Registrar General of the Calcutta High Court, Rai Chattopadhyay where few guidelines have been mentioned which are for other courts across the state as well. As per the notification, it has been mentioned that doctors should be deputed at the entry gates of the buildings of the High Court during working hours with thermal guns to check the temperature of those entering the court premises.

The checking will be done for all including the Justices of the Calcutta High Court. If anyone is found suffering from fever then follow up action must be taken by the doctors deputed there, said the statement. Registrar General of Calcutta High Court has been asked to write to the state government to arrange for an adequate number of thermal guns as well as doctors to take similar measures for all district and sub-divisional courts. Also, all the courts in the state have been instructed to reduce the number of staff at least by half and ensure that the duty is being distributed by rotation.

The bar associations in the courts including High Court has been requested to issue necessary directions to ensure that no gathering takes place in the lawyer chambers. It has also been directed to ensure that hand sanitisers are available in all the courtrooms along with other departments of the courts across the state.