Lawyers May Have To Wait Till August For Local Train Travel : Bombay High Court

The Bombay High Court on Saturday said that lawyers may have to wait till August for a decision on local train travel noting that the State covid task force is apprehending a third covid wave.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice GS Kulkarni were hearing Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa's petition seeking inclusion of lawyers for traveling in local trains in Mumbai. 

"What we have been told is that we will have to wait till August because the State task force is apprehending a third wave," the court orally remarked.

"Let us wait for sometime. By a judicial order we don't want to overcome an expert advise," the Chief Justice added. 

The bench was referring to the administrative meeting dated July 1 chaired by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta wherein it was decided that the Bombay High Court will continue virtual hearings atleast till July end. During the meeting, representative from the state government said they would try and work out the modalities for local train commute for advocates.

During the course of hearing, Advocate Milind Sathe appearing for the Petitioner submitted before the Court that:

"I believe that the respondents have taken steps. Last year in September, your lordships allowed the lawyers to travel on a selective basis and not a general permission."

To this, the Bench responded that it is better for the Court to wait for some time and that it does not wish to overrule the opinion of medical experts by issuing a judicial order. The matter was accordingly adjourned.

This came after the Bench had last week asked the State to decide on allowing lawyers to commute on local trains by July 1,considering the lack of public transportation and the increase in pendency of cases before various courts.

The Chief Justice had said that he would take up the issue in the administrative meeting on July 1. 

"If the decision does not favour the advocates on the administrative side we will take it up on the judicial side", he had said.

"Most of the trains I see while coming to court are vacant. Why can't you allow? We heard on the last date, only around 2000 lawyers need to use local trains. Please inform the Advocate General so that he can discuss it with people who are at the helm of affairs and on July 1 we would like to hear a decision," the Chief Justice had observed.

In another development, the Registrar of the High Court today has issued a notice notifying the composition of Judges who will be taking up regular bail and anticipatory bail applications on 17th and 31st of July 2021.

Edited by Sharmeen Hakim