The Punjab and Haryana High Court has disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking directions to prevent free entry and passage of lawyers and the public through electronic security gates installed at the High Court premises.
The petitioner prayed for the issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing respondents to operate the security gates only on scanning of authorized passes or identity cards issued to entrants.
During the hearing, the counsel for the Union Territory Administration informed the Court that all the turnstile gates and dropbox gates are functional, and none of the grievances raised in the present petition remain unredressed.
The senior counsel for the High Court also pointed out that the grievance regarding non-issuance of identity cards or passes for litigants has been redressed.
However, the Court noted that there is no verification or identification process in place to distinguish genuine lawyers from imposters in lawyers’ uniforms.
To address this issue, the Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sudhir Singh directed the Bar to adopt an appropriate procedure by placing the matter before the High Court Security Committee to lay down a process for proper identification of lawyers entering the High Court premises, after due verification, without causing undue embarrassment to them.
With these directions, the petition was disposed of.
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