Mumbai: The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told Bombay High Court it could not permit lawyers to travel by local trains, as it had restricted the number of trains and passengers as a safety measure due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
In an affidavit, the state submitted that restrictions on local trains had been imposed to "prevent overcrowding, and maintain social distancing" and lawyers could not claim any legal right to use them.
The state was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) and several intervention applications filed by lawyers in HC seeking that they be allowed to travel to courts by suburban trains amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Advocate Shyam Dewani, counsel for the main petitioner Chirag Channani, told a bench led by Chief Justice Dipankar Datta that several lawyers resided in the suburbs in Mumbai, and that they were undergoing tremendous inconvenience in traveling to courts and their offices due to restrictions on local train travel.
Dewani, and advocate Uday Warunjikar, counsel for another petitioner, also told HC that lawyers had already written to the state government seeking that their services be recognised as essential services during the lockdown and they be allowed local train travel.
Dewani also pointed out a Delhi High Court judgement of May permitting lawyers to travel to the national capital from neighbouring states unencumbered.
Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, however, told HC the Delhi HC judgement dealt with travel by private vehicles and not public transport.
Therefore, the petitioners could not seek parity on the basis of such judgement, he said.