Suryakant Jena

The Orissa High Court has issued fresh instructions to be followed for functioning of district and other subordinate courts in view of guidelines issued by the State Govt for graded unlocking of the economic activities.

The District and Subordinate Courts / Tribunals functioning in Category 'A' districts i.e. Angul, Bargarh, Bolangir, Boudh, Dhenkanal, Deogarh, Gajapati, Ganjam, Jharsuguda, Kandhamal, Kalahandi, Keonjhar, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, Rayagada, Sambalpur, Sonepur and Sundargarh are to resume normal functioning on all working days and take up all matters until further order, the High Court has said in its circular.

The District and Subordinate Courts/Tribunals functioning in Category 'B' districts i.e. Balasore, Bhadrak, Cuttack, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Khurda, Mayurbhanj, Nayagarh and Puri are to resume normal functioning from 19.07.2021 to 03.08.2021 till 3.00 P.M. with break from 1.00 p.m. to 1.30 p.m. on all working days and take up all matters.

The HC has mentioned that the hearing may be taken up on either physical or virtual mode depending upon the convenience of the Court. However, in all cases the accused is/are to be physically produced in the first instance.

The Members of the Bar Associations may be requested to extend their fullest cooperation in implementation of the above measures, the Registrar (Admn) of the HC said in the notification.

For the functioning of its benches, the HC has said that all arrangements announced by it on July 1, 2021 shall continue to be followed till July 23. The benches notified for the period from July 19 to July 23 will function through video conferencing.

Notably, the Odisha government on Thursday allowed further relaxations to economic activities and movement of people at the district level while extending the partial lockdown in the State till August 1.

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