Mitali Palnitkar
Published On: January 13, 2022 at 20:55 IST
Due to the spike in Covid-19 cases and increase in the number of Covid-19 positive cases among the staff members of High Court in the State of Odisha, the Orissa High Court has gone into complete shutdown for 5 days.
On January 12, 2022; an Office order issued by the Registrar of High Court stated, “It is hereby notified for the general information that in view of unprecedented surge in COVID-19 cases in the State and due to increase in COVID-19 positive cases amongst staff of the High Court, the High Court and its offices shall be completely shut down from January 13 to January 17 both dates inclusive. The offices of the High Court shall resume functioning on January 18, 2022.”
The Order also stated that the Benches notified for the five days mentioned are cancelled. The Court will resume its functioning from January 18, 2022 and shall resume its operations with two Division Benches and seven single-Judges to hear all the urgent cases. This shall continue until February 4, 2022.
The Order further stated, “The cases adjourned to specific dates during the period from 18th January 2022 to 4th February 2022 shall be listed from 7th February 2022 onwards. Mentioning of routine matters may be avoided during the said period.”
On January 7, 2022; the High Court had decided to hear cases through video conference from January 10 to February 4 in the view of third wave of the pandemic.
Odisha reported 8,778 new Covid-19 cases on January 12, 2022. The positivity rate also rose to 11.7% which is the highest in the last seven months.
Besides the Orissa High Court, the High Courts of Uttarakhand, Gujarat, Gauhati, Karnataka, Patna, Jharkhand, Calcutta, Delhi, Bombay, Telangana and the Supreme Court have resumed virtual hearing of cases.