Observing that the law and order situation in Jharkhand has deteriorated, the High Court on Wednesday, June 22, 2022, sought a report from the State government on the recent shootout in Deoghar Civil Court that left one person dead.
Hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL), a bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad observed that murders are being committed every day and the crime graph of the state was surging "very high".
The bench directed a security audit of the Deoghar Civil Court to assess the lapses in its premises that led to the killing.
It is not the first time that a shootout has happened on a court campus. Similar incidents have occurred earlier in Hazaribag and Jamshedpur, the court said, seeking a report from the state government.
Public interest litigations have also been filed, questioning the security of the court premises and that of lawyers and litigants at large, it added.
The Jharkhand State Bar Council has also filed a PIL in this regard.
The court will hear the matter again later this month.
On June 18, armed men entered the Deoghar court on motorcycles and shot dead one Amit Kumar Singh, who was arrested from Bihar in a crime case, in broad daylight when he was being produced, police said.
The miscreants made an easy escape from the court while the victim lay dead in a pool of blood.
Police said a pistol was recovered from the spot and an investigation was underway.
