Jharkhand High Court questioned the state government on inordinate delays in getting Covi-19 test reports on Friday, the judges pointing to the experience of several court employees.

A division bench of Chief Justice Ravi Ranjan and Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad raised the issue while hearing a PIL related to a corruption case pertaining to the earlier government headed by the BJP’s Raghubar Das.

The judges’ queries were directed at advocate general Rajiv Ranjan. The observed that testing process seemed to be slow when coronavirus cases were spreading in every part of Ranchi and elsewhere in the state.

The bench said that samples of many high court employees had been collected for testing, but that the reports were delayed. “If high court employees were facing delays in getting their Covid test results, we can imagine the plight of common citizens,” a judge said.

Defending the state, advocate general Ranjan submitted that test results were being declared as soon as the tests were conducted. He said efforts were on to increase the testing capacity in all districts.

Work at the high court resumed on Friday after it had been suspended for the last two days, following reports of about a dozen court employees testing positive for Covid-19.

District courts have also been affected by the virus. Early this week, the district court of Palamau was also shut for two days after one of its Grade 3 employees tested positive for the virus. In Hazaribagh, members of the district bar association announced days ago that they would not attend courts for judicial work till the end of the month in an effort to break the transmission chain.