Covid curbs: Patiala District Courts to function with 50% staff

Tribune News Service

Patiala, January 10

As per the instructions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the District and Sessions Judge, Patiala, has capped the presence of court employees at 50 per cent in the office. The order has come a few days after District and Sessions Judge Rajinder Aggarwal’s office emphasised on hearing cases through video-conferencing and allowed physical hearing only in a limited number of cases while following the Covid-19 protocol.

He said all officers were required to prepare a roster requiring 50 per cent of the employees to attend the office in such a manner that court and office work did not suffer.

Persons suffering from disability and pregnant women have been exempted from the same. Those who will not be attending the office on a given day are required to work from home and shall not leave the station without proper permission.

While allowing physical presence of more than 50 per cent of officials in a case of necessity, the District and Sessions Judge said all officials were required to wear face masks while maintaining social distancing.