Cuttack, Feb. 21: In an unprecedented order, Orissa High Court on Wednesday extended the jurisdiction of lower courts in Bhubaneswar up to Khurda, about 20km from the state capital.

In an interim arrangement the high court assigned the lower courts located in Bhubaneswar to adjudicate cases coming up under the jurisdiction of lower courts in Khurda.

The order was issued based on a writ petition filed by one Godavarish Mishra, a Khurda resident.

He had moved the high court after being unable to seek judicial redress from a lower court for days due to a lawyers’ strike.

The petitioner, while seeking police protection to file a suit in a Khurda lower court, pointed out that other litigants were also facing the same problem — all due to the strike.

The high court registrar, after probing into the matter, confirmed that the strike had paralysed the lower courts in Kharda.

The Khurda District Bar Association has been spearheading a strike since January 2008. The association has been demanding the shift of the Khurda district judge court in Bhubaneswar to Khurda.

Taking stock of the situation, the two-judge bench of Justice I.M. Qudussi and Justice S.C. Parija empowered the Khurda district judges court (Bhubaneswar) to enforce an increase in jurisdiction of the lower courts in the state capital to enable them to hear all cases — civil or criminal — coming under the jurisdiction of lower courts, in Khurda.