Patna: Annoyed at the rising crime graph and jailbirds having a free run from behind the bars, the Patna High Court on Tuesday (Dec 7, 2004) observed that the situation appeared to have gone beyond control and directed the Chief Secretary, Director General of Police and other top officials to appear before it on Wednesday (Dec 8, 2004).

A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Nagendra Roy and Justice SN Hussain made the observation when Inspector General of Prisons, Deepak Kumar Singh, told the court that efforts were being made to curb criminals from running their networks through mobile phones from jails.

The bench expressed annoyance at reports of criminals making extortion threats to professionals from behind the bars, despite its instruction to the State Government to stop it immediately.

"The situation appears to have gone beyond control," it observed. The court was hearing a PIL by Indian Medical Association (Bihar), which said criminals were targeting doctors for extortion and urged it to provide security to them.

The bench ordered Chief Secretary KAH Subramanian, DGP Narayan Mishra, Home Secretary Girish Shankar and IG Prisons Deepak Kumar Singh to be present in the court on Wednesday, when it would give its order on the law and order situation in the State.