CHENNAI: Panic hit Madras high court on Saturday, as a junior assistant attached to a government law officer tested positive for Covid-19 The entire campus was put on high alert and steps were taken to sanitise the premises, as the staff attended court including open court hearings on April 15 and April 16.The employee is said to have attended proceedings when a division bench was hearing cases in a crowded court hall.The high court and state health department officials have initiated steps to identify all those who came in contact with the staffer. They shall be traced, tested for Covid-19 and put under quarantine, if needed, court sources told TOI.As the employee would have passed through the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) screening, those posts are also being scanned.According to court sources, all the law officers, including the advocate-general and additional advocate-general who attended the court hearings were subjected to Covid-19 tests as a precaution.The fact that a staff member of the court has tested positive was confirmed by state health minister C Vijayabaskar during the daily Covid-19 media bulletin on Saturday.Though regular functioning of the high court and its subordinate courts across the state have been suspended since March 24 in view of the nationwide lockdown, the courts were adopting restrictive functioning by taking up only urgent cases with prior approval.Though most of such special sittings by a division bench or a single judge were organised through video conferencing and video calling facilities through online platforms and apps, a few cases were heard in the open court.In one such incident, a division bench of the court heard a batch of pleas relating to media reports relating to COvid-19 and linking it to a particular community, and challenging the restriction imposed by the state government in distributing Covid-19 relief materials to public directly by political parties and NGOs on April 16.The hearings were attended by a group of law officers, including the advocate-general, senior advocates representing the petitioners and a journalists representing print and television media.