Patna: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) faced much heat on Thursday as outgoing facilities of cellphones of 11 Patna High Court judges were barred, putting them into discomfiture as they could not use their mobile phones for almost 20 hours.

The issue lingered on till afternoon as the firm's dedicated internal internet link that was needed to restore the services was not working.

Though the outgoing facilities were barred on Wednesday evening due to non-payment of the previous month's bill, the timing was such that offices of BSNL were closed for the day and nothing could be done to restore the services.

Peeved, the judges told the high court staff, who rang up senior BSNL officials stationed in Patna asking them to rectify the problem immediately. "One particular officer of Patna High Court called us last night and chided us. He demanded that the facilities be restored immediately. But our offices were closed, so we rushed to our office on Budh Marg a little early. In the meantime the bills had been paid," a BSNL official said.

"We hurriedly put out the restoration order, but the dedicated internet link needed to operate the system from where connections are restored had failed. We all waited for several hours for the link and the outgoing facilities of the judges were restored around 3pm (on Thursday)," the telecom official added.

Similarly, the outgoing facility of a cellphone of health minister Mangal Pandey was also barred and people from his office were doing the rounds of BSNL office to get it restored.

Confirming that the outgoing facilities of 11 justices were barred, Patna High Court registrar general Bidhu Bhushan Pathak said: "The high court won't run away with money. The bill payment was delayed just by a few days and the outgoing facilities were barred. What would have happened if any judge had to make any urgent call from his mobile?"

Pathak added that he has asked his staff to ensure that bills are paid on time and that such things do not recur, but asserted that cellphones are now considered essential services and should not be suddenly stopped.

A BSNL official revealed that an automatic system bars outgoing facilities if the customer does not pay his monthly post-paid bills even five or six days after the stipulated deadline, which happens to be the 25th of every month. He also said that among high court judges, only the chief justice was exempted from barring of outgoing facilities.

However, it was not only the Patna High Court judges who suffered. Outgoing facilities of a Patna-based deputy inspector-general (DIG) of ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) were barred at a time when three of his units are posted in Chhattisgarh battling Maoists and he needed to be in constant touch with his men.