On Monday, October 19, the Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court that it has decided to increase the number of local trains and that all lawyers may use them but only for professional reasons, to prevent crowding during the outbreak of the coronavirus.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a couple of public interest litigations stating that services rendered by advocates were essential services. Hence, lawyers should be included in the list of essential staff permitted to travel on special suburban/local trains. Moreover, the lawyer’s union had earlier demanded that the lawyers be permitted to travel on the suburban locomotives run for essential services. A limited number of suburban locomotives were being run earlier for essential service personnel.
As the actual functioning of the High Court and the lower courts have begun, due to lack of public transport, lawyers are facing many difficulties in reaching the respective courts. Therefore, a modified demand was made by the petitioners that the lawyers should now be allowed to travel locally. The court also took note of their demand and asked the state government whether the lawyer’s proposal was pending. However, with this decision, the lawyers will now be able to use the suburban services for travelling.
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