Security personnel check a visitor at Patna High Court on Wednesday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Sept. 7: Shocked after the blast in Delhi, some lawyers today boycotted proceedings in Patna High Court lamenting security lapses.

The protest against inadequate number of security personnel, lack of CCTV cameras and no entry bar for strangers paralysed the functioning of the high court. Around 1,050 cases went unheard because of the boycott.

Led by senior superintendent of police Alok Kumar and deputy superintendent of police (law and order) L.M. Sharma, police today made on-the-spot inspections at the high court. “But it looked like a casual drill,” said a lawyer.

Besides intensifying security on the court premises after the blast in Delhi, high alert has been sounded across the state. Additional director-general (headquarters) Rajyavardhan Sharma said all police stations had been alerted.

Police patrolling has also been intensified with special attention to railway stations and crowded spots in Patna, Muzaffarpur, Gaya and Bhagalpur.

Though the security arrangements were beefed up on the court premises after the blast, The Telegraph spotted several loopholes in the security arrangements. Situated on the busy Bailey Road, the court has five entrance and exit gates. Of them, four remain open.

Four constables and a havildar man each entrance while 20 Bihar Military Police jawans and 30 Bihar police personnel are deputed on the high court premises.

A securityman deputed at one of the entrances said: “The security was tightened at the high court after the Delhi High Court blast. It appears to be an eyewash, though.” According to him, the biggest security threat to the court is absence of pass for visitors.

“We have requested the high court management several times to introduce a pass system for visitors but it has not been introduced because of protest by advocates,” he added.

None of the entrance gates has CCTV cameras and a visitor requires a pass only to enter the courtrooms.

A bank, a railway reservation counter, a post office and a hospital on the court premises, initially opened for employees of the high court and the lower courts but now open to public, intensify the security threat.

Bihar Bar Council chairman Baleshwar Prasad Sharma said: “It is high time that the security inside the high court and district-level courts is strengthened.”