The Gujarat High Court has restricted the entry of people in its premises in the wake of a rise in coronavirus cases in the state, and barred the entry of litigants while making it mandatory for those required to appear in person to carry COVID-19 negative report.
The curbs will come into effect from Wednesday, as per a circular issued by the HC's registrar general on Monday.
According to the circular, the Chief Justice has also ordered for the closure of all the canteens located in the high court premises from Wednesday.
Screening has been made mandatory for all those entering the court premises, with strict adherence to social distancing norm and cooperation with the medical screening team, it said.
"In the matter of habeas corpus petitions, the corpus shall be produced by the jurisdictional police authorities before the jurisdictional district court to enable the judges presiding the bench to interact in virtual mode with the persons so produced," said the circular.
The HC has also asked the advocates' association president to ensure that the bar library, reference library and all bar rooms are closed by 1 pm every day, and requested advocates to not sit in large numbers in any of the court premises.
Other precautionary measures like downloading the Aarogya App and avoiding handshakes are also required to be taken, apart from following the government advisory issued from time-to-time, said the circular.
On Monday, Gujarat reported 1,259 new COVID-19 cases, its highest tally in nearly seven months, raising the total number of confirmed cases reported from the state to 8,35,028. Out of the fresh cases, Ahmedabad city alone accounted for 631 cases.
The high court had resumed physical hearing from August last year, after operating online for nearly a year due to the pandemic situation.
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