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Source: Hindustan Times dated 16.07.2020
Link to the article: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bombay-hc-dismisses-petition-seeking-to-exempt-lawyers-from-lockdown-restrictions/story-6shmff7VwJrSjCAgwcDD5I.html
-- Kanchan Chaudhary
Link to the article: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bombay-hc-dismisses-petition-seeking-to-exempt-lawyers-from-lockdown-restrictions/story-6shmff7VwJrSjCAgwcDD5I.html
-- Kanchan Chaudhary
Shaikh had filed the petition after Mumbai Traffic Police had stopped him recently, when he was on his way to Mumbai city civil and sessions court on his two-wheeler and imposed a fine of Rs 500 for flouting lockdown restrictions.
The Bombay high court (HC) last
Friday dismissed a petition seeking exemption for lawyers and their staff
during the nationwide lockdown restrictions, which were enforced from March 25
to contain the spread of the raging coronavirus disease (Covid19) outbreak, and
also refused to buy into the argument that they are essential service providers
like other frontline workers battling the pandemic.
“In our considered view, no
mandatory directions can be issued to the state legislature to include the
legal services rendered by the advocates into essential services (as
contemplated under Maharashtra Essential Services Maintenance Act, 2017),” said
a two-member HC bench, comprising Justices SS Shinde and Madhav Jamdar, while
rejecting the petition filed by advocate Imran Mohammed Salar Shaikh.
He had moved the HC, through
advocate Kareem Pathan, seeking a direction to Maharashtra government to
include services rendered by lawyers as an essential one and exempt them and
their staff from the prevailing lockdown restrictions.
Shaikh had filed the petition after
Mumbai Traffic Police had stopped him recently, when he was on his way to
Mumbai city civil and sessions court on his two-wheeler and imposed a fine of
Rs 500 for flouting lockdown restrictions.
Advocate Pathan argued that lawyers
across the country were attending courts even during the lockdown, and
consequently directions to the state government were necessary to exempt
lawyers and their staff from lockdown restrictions by including their services
as an essential one.
He also prayed before the court to
waive off the fine imposed on the petitioner by Mumbai Traffic Police.
The HC, however, expressed its
inability to entertain the petition and issue directions to the state
government as prayed for.
The bench said, “It is within the
exclusive domain of the state legislature to legislate as to which services to
be included in the essential services, keeping in view the paramount interest
of the community.”
The bench has, however, allowed the
petitioner to file a comprehensive representation to the state government
raising the issues put forth in the petition.
It has clarified that the dismissal
of the petition shall not be construed by the government as an impediment in
deciding the representation filed by the petitioner.
