The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said it is aware of the difficulties faced by lawyers in Mumbai, but cannot proceed on medical advice and allow them to use local train services to commute to work. .
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said it is aware of the difficulties faced by lawyers in Mumbai, but cannot proceed on medical advice and allow them to use local train services to commute to work. .
A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice GS Kulkarni, however, directed the Maharashtra government to inform the court about its decision by July 16 whether 60 registered judicial clerks of the High Court can be allowed to use the trains. The HC was presently allowing only physical filing of cases.
The HC was hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) seeking permission for lawyers to use local trains to travel to courts and their offices.
The bench said that after the administrative committee meeting on July 1, the high court had asked the state government to decide on the permission of judicial clerks. It had decided against allowing lawyers to use trains till the COVID-19 situation in the state improves further.
On Tuesday, when the bench directed state counsel Purnima Kantharia to inform the court about the state’s decision, one of the petitioners’ counsel Shyam Dewani reiterated that lawyers were also facing difficulties in coming to work.
To this the bench said, “Don’t think that we are not worried about the problems of the lawyers. But we cannot go beyond medical advice.
“We are taking advice from the state’s apex expert body, the Maharashtra COVID-19 Task Force,” the court said.
The HC will hear the petition further on July 16.
Local train services in Mumbai are currently restricted to emergency and essential services employees.
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